


What we have to work with

by naturegirlrocks



Series: Working with what we got [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Asexual Loki, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Slow Build, Technobabble guesswork, Tony is Awesome, going into space, pregnancy (female only)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-04-11 09:37:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 92,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4430351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naturegirlrocks/pseuds/naturegirlrocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers are summoned before court. Secrets that they thought were safe are coming out in the open and a bold plan is made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not so secret anymore

**Author's Note:**

> Second part of the Working With What We Got-series. You need to read the first one to understand it. This will hopefully be updated on Sundays. I hope it will live up to its predecessor, but who knows what will happen. It's already going in a strange way in my head. Enjoy!

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!"

Clint's upset voice pierced through the courtroom. The twenty-nine news crews present all honed their lenses on his shocked face, making him too recognisable to the public to ever be a secret agent ever again . 

Tony wanted to object as well but he had already gotten two warnings for contempt of court, and even if he had played right into the hands and hearts of the spectators and reporters, he really didn't want to be put in a holding cell for the rest of the session. This was too important to screw up. 

"I wasn't even there half the time!" said the archer, looking even more uncomfortable in the suit and tie he had borrowed from Tony. 

"Nevertheless, Agent Barton," said Richard Riceman, High Court judge and the chairman of the board of the nine military, federal, and state judges gathered to decide the future and faith of the team so called 'Avengers'. "You are the highest ranking agent of SHEILD that has bothered to show up. In these proceedings you are therefore held responsible and stand to defend any actions taken."

Clint looked to Natasha for support. She was dressed in a perfect black business suit tailored around her four month pregnant belly. She just shrugged at him. It didn't always come across between the two assassins, but Clint actually held the higher rank of them. Tony hadn't had a clue, but then again he hadn't been that observant. 

Tony wondered how much of the damages he would have to pay out of his own pocket since SHEILD didn't seem to want to show their stupid secret faces. 

Director Phil Coulson had been pretty obvious with the Avengers that he wanted SHEILD to revert to a secrecy so deep that it never needed to come up for air. The organisation was now mostly committed to researching alien technology. It had basically changed from a independent government agency to the real Men In Black. 

Tony wasn't really sure what the difference was, but in the eyes of the law, the public, and Hydra, SHEILD was gone.

Also, Tony was no longer capable of hacking their computers, which was a bummer.

"To continue..." Riceman looked over his notes. "Captain Steven Rogers, year of birth... 1922?"

"That is correct, sir," Steve stood up from his seat, he was wearing more casual clothes, but had also borrowed a tie from Tony. 

There had been some discussion over this choice at the tower earlier. Even though Tony was in a public and committed four-month relationship with a man mostly only known to the press as Thor's brother, the press never got tired of pairing him off with Steve. 

"I see..." Riceman looked at Steve's young face and very good form, and then his notes, and then at Steve again. "Also known as 'Captain America'... Did you choose that name for yourself?"

"No, sir. It was President Roosevelt."

A giggle went through the room. The judges didn't seem amused. 

"You, opposite to Agent Barton, were present in Washington DC at the time in question?"

"I was, sir."

"And who was with you?" 

"I was alone, sir."

"It says here that you were accompanied by... Mr. Samuel Wilson, formerly Tech Sergeant of the US Airforce, and a Ms Natalie Rushmore."

Tony was amazed that Nat had managed to keep her alternate identity during the proceedings so far. 

"Or should I call you Ms Natalia Romanova?" Riceman turned the page. "How long have you been living in The United States under a false name without a citizenship? Seven years? We have all your files, curtesy of yourself, Ms Romanova and they make quote a interesting read."

Natasha just gave him a level stare, the one she usually gave before starting to break some bones. 

"It's Mrs Barton, actually," Natasha had a hand protective placed over her belly. 

Steve cleared his throat. 

"The two of them were not with me for the actual confrontation of the enemy, sir."

"The confrontation?" Riceman glanced to his neighbour, a grim old federal judge with grey hair, who took Steve's answer as an opportunity to give a irritated grunt. "Would that be the confrontation that ended with putting three so called "Hellicarriers", worth about one billon dollars each, in the Hudson Bay and then letting the terrorist responsible get away?"

Tony made a grimace. He wasn't happy that five of the the eighteen Hellicarrier engines that he designed for SHEILD were now looked up in some hangar being poked at by sticky government fingers. Thankfully he had made sure that there had been self-destructive mechanism installed, making them, hopefully, impossible to reverse-engineer. 

The remaining thirteen engines, along with a considerable amount of very, very expensive wreckage, even by Tony's own standards, was now underground somewhere in Montana. 

"Sir," Steve took a step forward. "I must insist that this man isn't a terrorist. He was used as a tool by the real enemy, Hydra."

"Yes, Hydra. The nazi-terrorist organisation that has been sleeping inside SHEILD for seventy years. It doesn't give you to much vote of confidence..."

"The Avengers are separate from SHEILD..." 

"Still three of you are registered as agents, and two as consultants. Only Thor doesn't have an official position, though he describes himself as a friend to SHEILD."

"I am," concurred Thor loudly.

"You are not even a citizen of this planet..."

"Oh, my, god," Tony stopped flicking through the pictures on his phone he just had accessed in the court's database, that up until then had been mostly security footage from Washington and London. This was something else.

Riceman looked away from Thor to Tony and smirked. 

"I see that Mr. Stark has found the photograph in question that we are interested in. No need to do your trick with hacking our screens, Mr. Stark, we are fully capable of showing the images of Captain Rogers ourselves." 

The court's screen were suddenly showing the photograph had Tony found on the database. It was a candid photo of Steve, walking out of a coffeehouse about a block away from the Tower. He was walking next to Bucky Barnes, alias the Winter Soldier. 

An other image was shown next to it depicting surveillance from Washington set during Steve and Bucky's little street-fight there. There was a collective breath of air being inhaled from the room, actually causing the oxygen levels to go down for a short moment.

Steve had the decency to look ashamed.They had all agreed to keep Bucky away from the public's eyes, and there by also Hydra's eyes, while he recovered. Even if Loki had helped him regain all his memories, Bucky's psychological state was still very questionable. He hadn't even let them get close to him with a scissor to cut his hair. 

On the other side, now the press had someone new to romantically team Steve up with. Though it being a man stamped as a terrorist wasn't probably that good for the Captain America brand. 

Natasha was the first one to recover as she got up and hurried over to Bruce, taking both his hands in hers and started guiding him through a breathing-exercise. Bruce was very protective over Bucky and took the recovery process very seriously. 

"You took him outside?" asked Clint. "I thought we agreed not to do that."

"Oh, we haven't even started, Agent Barton," said Riceman with a smug smile. "Show the next image."

Tony had thought it would be the next photo in the series of Steve and Bucky that he already had seen on his phone so he didn't even bother looking. 

He was concentrating on finding out via Jarvis if the military had tried to pick Barnes up from the tower yet or not. Though when Bruce began to growl ominously beside him, and Thor beginning to swear in old Norse, he looked up to a over dozen cameras flashing in his face. 

On the screen were several images of Loki in full battle armour. They were all from the Battle Of New York. Loki as the leader of the invading alien armies. Loki chained up and beaten after his defeat before leaving for Asgård with Thor. 

Where had they gotten the close-ups? JARVIS was supposed to have everything recognisable destroyed, especially the ones that had leaked from SHEILD in the public dumping of files. 

Tony turned to look at Peter Parker who sat in the audience. The kid shook his hands and showed his hands. He did look a little hurt that Tony would even think such a thing. 

There were other photographers out there of course. Ones that where not private, media, or accessible through hacking, but federal and secret intelligence on independent servers. The thought that government agencies had just been laying on these photos for months since Tony made his relationship with Loki public, just waiting for a good time to strike him with blackmail was nauseating. Traitors, the lot of them. 

"Mr. Stark," asked Riceman. "Is this the same man that with whom you admitted to having a relationship with?

"Yes, but in my defence he is much nicer in person."

"If you are quite finished," Riceman glared.

"Sir," Steve hesitatingly took a step forward holding up a forefinger in question. "Since you know where Bu-, I mean the Winter Soldier... Are you planning to apprehend him?"

"Of course."

The Avengers glanced at each other. Steve turned to the audience to find Sam Wilson, the ex-military was already running towards the doors. Tony hoped the man didn't have a long way to his Falcon-wings. 

"Officers have also been ordered to apprehend Mr. Stark's personal terrorist." 

"Oh shit," Tony took up his phone frenetically looking through the security systems.

"To return to the point," Riceman gave Tony a angry look. "Both Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark are harbouring criminals..."

"Eh, excuse me?" Clint rose up to stand next to Steve. "As the designated leader of SHEILD I would like to send agents to..."

"Mr. Barton. Haven't you gotten it into your head that SHEILD is disbanded? The Avengers are disbanded! You are all facing heavy criminal charges! Except for Dr. Banner who will be turned over to the US military, as he is their legal property."

So Bruce had suddenly lost all his human rights? Who's brilliant idea had that been? The silence following Riceman's outburst was deafening. Tony raised his hand. 

"Even Thor?"

"No," the judge sighed. "Thor holds a diplomatic status, but he is highly recommended to leave the country before that is permanently revoked." 

"Will it be revoked if, to say, he left right now and flew to my Tower to save the lives of the SWAT-team trying to capture mine and Steve's boyfriends?"

Riceman blinked. 

Thor was already out the door, not waiting for a reply. 

"We are just very good friends," said Steve to the gathered press who probably weren't listening. 

//////////////

 

They were sitting in a kind of luxury holding cell that mostly resembled a small staff diner. There were armed guards at all exits that wouldn't even stand a chance up against Natasha, Clint, and Steve. They could probably beat Tony without his tech, but he would have the Hulk to hide behind so who cared?

"Did Thor make it in time?" asked Bruce sipping his herbal tea.

"He did," Tony had been forced to give away his phone but he wouldn't be Tony Stark if he hadn't had at least one backup to get in contact with JARVIS. "Falcon too. No casualties."

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. 

"We can get out here easily enough," Tony stretched. "Problem is what happens later. I'm not going to jail for falling in love with a madman, the act itself is punishment enough. Fortunately I have a plan. Though I'm not so sure any you will agree with it."

"What is it?" asked Natasha. 

"We leave Earth," Tony leaned back in his chair. 

"What?" Bruce took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. "You want to go to Asgard?"

"Nah. Too shiny and godlike for my tastes, besides Loki hates it there. I mean..." He leaned forward across the table, making the others do the same. "...into space, the final frontier! Come on! We know there are whole worlds out there! Thor and Loki has visited several of them already."

His four friends leaned back with frowning faces. 

"I've been working on it for a few years, a spaceship. Just for fun, mind you. But after Iron Man, the invasion and the wrecked Hellicarriers I got my hands on some really cool shit. And you all know Loki is a fucking genius. The ideas he gave me and Bruce with the Moments of Clarity are literally interstellar."

"You used my radiation shields?" Bruce sounded almost excited against his will. 

"I got an almost operational spaceship in a hangar under Montana! Earth doesn't want us. Leave it to the X-men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and that whatever Justice League. There are already enough superheroes around here! Come on guys! We can explore space!"

The others exchanged glances. 

"I would rather leave Earth than be deported back to Russia," nodded Natasha. "Or stay here under scrutiny. Pumpkin will never have a normal life what ever we do."

Pumpkin was the nick-name she and Clint had given their baby after Nat grudgingly had let Clint draw a pumpkin face on her stomach on Halloween a few weeks ago. 

"Fine," Clint shrugged. "SHEILD has left with a multi-billion dollar check and a very public face. I'm all up for leaving the planet. Besides, Star Trek was going to become real deal sooner or later, why not be a part of it from the beginning? Also, first Earth-baby born in space? How cool is that?"

"I always said that Hulk has no place on Earth," said Bruce. "And doing research in space? Who wouldn't? As long as you can keep me from destroying the ship."

"No problem, big guy. Got it all covered. I was actually counting on you to say yes."

They turned to Steve, he seemed to hesitate. 

"I'm not entirely opposed to the idea, since I now know there are other worlds out there. But I have to speak Bucky first. I can't leave him, nor can I force him."

"I understand," Tony nodded. "You guys really took this much better than I thought you would."

Nat shrugged, she was pretending to inspect her nails while really looking at the armed guards. 

"Just one question," Clint raised a finger. "Are we to refer to you as Captain Stark?"

"'Commander' will do fine," Tony looked around as he dotted out orders to JARVIS on a hidden keyboard in his sleeve. "I can get a chopper to the park in ten minutes. How do we get out of here?"

"Bruce," Nat shifted her balance. "Do you mind creating a distraction?"

"My pleasure." 

Bruce smiled before starting to scream. The scream was nothing like a real transformation would be, usually he didn't scream at all, but no one else than his friends would know that. Tony and Steve hurried over like they would help him. 

"What's going on?" one of the guards rushed forward. 

"He's changing!" Clint backed away as if he was scared, pulling Nat behind him to protect her. "The Hulk."

"Can't you do anything?" the guard seemed to immediately panic and hugged his rifle to his chest, he had obviously meet the Hulk before, many soldiers had. 

"He needs air," said Steve in his authoritarian tone. "Open the door and take him outside. Quickly before he breaks the walls to get there. We can't control him when he gets like this."

The other guards seemed to agree. They helped opening the door, no one wanted to be trapped inside with the beast. As soon as they were distracted Nat and Clint made their move and rendered the guards unconscious. 

"Tony, Steve, take Bruce out," Clint was examining an air-vent over their heads. "Nat and I'll meet you in the park." 

Nat was probably not supposed to go inside dirty air-vents in her condition but no one argued, least of all Nat. Tony supportively wrapped his arms around Bruce for authenticity, Steve led the way out of the room. 

"Coming through, emergency," Steve's commandeering voice and presence helped clear the way for them. 

They had almost made it to the outer doors when they were stopped in the huge marble entrance hall of the court building by a small group of armed militaries led on by none other than General Ross himself. He was most likely there to collect Bruce for their secret military science project. 

Tony pushed Bruce into Steve's arms and hurried them both away with scooting motions. The two of them continued outside. Tony adjusted his suit and turned to the general with one of his best fake smiles. 

"Was that Dr. Banner?" Ross tried to walk pass Tony. 

"You wouldn't want to do that," Tony moved to stand in the way. "He's having an episode and we are trying to calm him down. You would only upset him more. You know how he feels about you."

"That's why I got the special tranquilliser with me," Ross tried to get passed again. 

He had pointed to one of his men who was carrying a huge, well, it looked like a smaller sized grenade launcher. Tony was amazed that it even had been allowed to be taken inside the court building. 

"Smart thinking," said Tony, still standing in the general's way. "But wouldn't it be easier to take him with you if he still was small? Think of the transportation costs."

"Shouldn't you be in a holding cell?" Ross looked him over. 

"I'm rich," Tony shrugged. "So what are you going to do with Bruce?"

He was getting vibrations through the device in his sleeve that told him that he was seriously running late for the chopper, the others must be there already. They wouldn't be able to wait for him. 

"He's escaping isn't he?" Ross grumbled. "And so are you. Well bad luck, Mr. Stark. You are coming with me."

"I don't think so," said a smooth voice from nowhere. "He's coming with me."

Tony grinned as a familiar pale hand grabbed his sleeve. 

"Hello, babe," he said. 

"I told you never to call me that again," Loki snapped and magically whisked him away in a little too dramatic green smoke that made Ross and his men cough.


	2. Home sweet new home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony introduces the travellers to their new digs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Loki are still the main characters, but since this is going to be a long fic with a big cast (+20) I'm going to throw in some other, shorter, points of view. 
> 
> This chapter is all Loki though :)
> 
> Is there any particular character that you want to get to know better? Please make suggestions.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and others," Anthony winked at Loki who ignored him. "Welcome to Montana and my secret underground bunker. Well, my dad's secret underground bunker, but it's mine now. Howard built it in the early sixties when he harboured serious thoughts of building rockets to bomb the Soviet with."

"Charming," said Romanoff.

It had taken the Avengers' plane little over three hours to fly from New York to the facility. Loki could have gotten them there much faster through teleportation, but he had no desire what so ever to act as a delivery service going back and forth with ten people. 

Not only would that have meant him holding on to them, or they to him, but also, it was not something he wanted to waste his magic on. 

He hadn't told the others, not even Anthony, that his magic wasn't infinite anymore. His injury, though now healed, had left more than a large ugly scar on his body, it had affected his magical balance. This was mostly because he had let it go untreated for so long. 

It was his own fault.

The Svartalfheim blade had cursed his Frostgiant flesh forevermore, making it weaker, and easier for his magic to drain. He was still powerful, but not as powerful as before. And the weaker he got, the worse his headaches became. It was a painful indicator, but an indicator none the less. 

For the moment he felt perfectly fine. The journey had been boring. He had tried to read some of the books he had found in Anthony's wast library, but the others, especially Anthony and Darcy, had been talking on their phones most of the way. 

The two of them were doing something they called 'damage control', but what was damage and what was control Loki had a hard time seeing. Anthony was shifting between giving instructions to JARVIS and defending Loki and Barnes to heralds.

"They were both tools to forces bigger than themselves," he would say repeatedly, form time to time meeting Loki's eyes. "I stand by them with my full support."

They had left Potts behind to take care of their pursuers, Loki had more confidence in her ability to damage control than he had in the others. 

"Mr. Stark is not running away," said Darcy to whomever she was speaking to. "Neither is he escaping or eloping. No, the engagement is not called off, there never was an engagement! They are not getting married. No, the wedding is not called off, there never was a wedding."

The heralds had been haunting Anthony for months about what kind of relationship he and Loki shared. It had been speculated everything from secret marriage to sexual seduction and alien mind control. Many had wished them luck, but others had been angry thinking that Anthony thought himself better than them in not choosing a human for a mate. 

Loki wondered what they would think now, now when they knew who he was. The leader, how ever reluctant, of the invading alien forces that destroyed a city and killed hundreds of people. What would they think of Anthony? Would he still be their hero? 

Maybe space was the only place left for him to go...

Barton was piloting the plane, but most of it was automated so the archer mostly just sat the entire time and stared out the window. From time to time he huffed or shook his head over something Anthony and Darcy said, but never opened his own mouth. 

Rogers, Thor, Barnes, and Wilson had actually managed to sleep the whole journey through. Lucky bastards. Maybe it had to do with them being fighters, and knowing to take their rest were they could get it.

Thor had tried to talk to Loki again, but Loki had turned away. Just because Thor had gotten insight in how it was to be a Frostgiant and Asgardian at the same time and not be accepted by neither race, didn't mean that Loki wanted to talk about it.

Jane and Romanoff hadn't slept, both being pregnant, and Jane with twins, they alternated turns in running to the bathroom so often that they both just stayed in there after while. Banner had been working on his computer, looking over some plans of the ship Anthony had given him. 

"Thankfully, for the Russians..." Anthony prattled on as he pressed his palm to a glass surface on the wall and a red light moved over it, "...and any place that they in turn would select for a counter strike, that never happened. Howard was interrupted in his plans by finding the Teseract in the Arctic sea, after that this facility was abandoned."

They entered a large freight elevator that started descending as soon as the doors closed behind them. It had glass walls but the shaft outside it was still metal Loki knew what was coming, he had been given this speech a few days earlier when Anthony finally had agreed on showing him the ship. 

He had been appropriately impressed. For something built on Midgård it was impressive to say the least, for something built by mostly Anthony himself was awe inspiring. Loki had felt strangely proud as he had been showed around. He hadn't even protested once when Anthony had asked him about magical spells that could improve on the ship. 

For now he was content on watching the reactions of the others. Everyone, except for Darcy who was texting on her phone, was looking at Anthony as he spoke. 

"I found it after going through his papers after I decided that even if he was a bastard, he still had some good ideas. It's a perfect place to build a spaceship in. Weekend tinkering, robots, and suppliers and contractors on a need-to-know basis, have done the rest."

The elevator left the metal shaft and the whole room opened up before them. It was two times larger than the throne hall of Asgård. Loki knew that even Thor was impressed by the momentarily dropping of his jaw. 

"This is the Heidrun," announced Anthony like a true showman. "Which for those brave enough among you will soon call home."

He couldn't help but to feel some pride on Anthony's behalf. 

The ship filled up about three quarters of the room. It was a true beauty in the eye of the beholder, which was another midgardian expression Loki had learned. He clearly recognised several panels from Chitauri leviathan ships that hadn't been there the last time he had been there. He preferred not to think about how Anthony must have stripped the armour from the flesh of the large beasts.

Anthony had called them 'badass'. After explaining to Loki what that meant, Loki had told him just how badass they were. Just the sight of those panels would be a deterrent for anyone wanting to attack them. Anyone defeating two leviathan, stripping them of armour, and coating their ship with them was a significant force to be reckoned with. 

"Weekend tinkering?" laughed Barton. "You built fucking spaceship, dude." 

"I had several ready pieces in the Helicarriers, some old stuff that Howard had laying around, NASA had a... we can call it a secondhand sale, and of course the alien ships," Anthony shrugged. "And Bruce helped." 

"Apparently as a contractor on a need-to-know basis," laughed Banner looking out over the ship as they descended to the bottom of the vast room. "I didn't know that you had taken it this far."

"I wanted to surprise you on your birthday, taking you here. But the inquest screwed up that idea. So happy birthday in advance."

"That's like two months from now."

"Which, incidentally, is the time it would take to finish this baby up now that I got your help."

"And mine," said Jane who had been pressing her palms and forehead against the glass. "I'm coming with you."

"Jane..." began Thor.

"I'm coming with them." 

End of discussion. Thor nodded. Loki smirked. 

Jane was carrying Thor's children, the twin heirs of Asgård, She would be suffering greatly for this. Besides the fact that her small body wasn't equipped to bare or birth a large child, let alone two, she was also mortal and would most likely not live to see her children come of age. 

She would also be forced to endure the prejudice from the Asgardians towards her kind, as well as slanders and exposure from her own people through media and association to the Avengers. It was understandable that she wanted to leave Midgård. 

Anthony was working on something he called 'a string of Exremis' that could give mortals more strength and longlivity, but it would not compare to either Thor nor Loki. Neither of them had reached a quarter of their lifespan yet. They just had to do the best they could with the time they had. 

Then there was the Elixir of Idun, Loki grimaced uncomfortably as he always did when he thought of it. The Elixir would grant a mortal a longer lifespan perhaps even equal to Asgardians, but, like the serum that had changed Captain America, it would also enhance emotional characteristics. An ambitious, stubborn, and traumatised person like Anthony wouldn't survive it without going insane at the cost. 

They exited the elevator, Anthony still talking and pointing out features on the ship. 

"'Heidrun'?" asked Sam Wilson looking up at the enormous vessel where the name had already been,painted in letters twice his own size. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's Asgardian," said Thor sending Loki an amused smirk that Loki totally ignored.

It had been the name of one of Loki's favourite pets as a child. A goat that had been given to him by a Vanaheim farmer that supplied honey for the royal mead. Usually such gifts were mostly symbolic and passed down to the royal stables, but Loki had chosen to keep it. Thor and his friends had mocked him, but the goat had been a surprisingly good companion for a lonely boy. 

Anthony and he had spent much of the first two months of their relationship exchanging childhood stories. It had been very educational, even though both of them still carried much resentment over that period of time of their lives. Loki had no idea why this particular story had touched Anthony so much as to name the ship after it. He felt touched 

"These engines will only take us into orbit," Anthony explained gesturing to one of the large constructs. "We will seriously need to rebuild them if we want to leave the solarsystem this decade. Unfortunately we can't do it here. The reconstruction is impossible on Earth. We need to do that in space, zero gravity. Less heavy lifting."

"How long will that take to rebuild the engines?" asked Romanoff. 

Anthony blinked a few times as he made some calculations in his head. 

"Well, now that's the cat out of the bag and I don't have to be as secret with asking for assistance anymore. I can do some preliminary work here so... I would estimate about twenty weeks." 

The two women exchanged looks. Loki knew what they were thinking, in twenty weeks time the both of them would be ready to give birth. He was very much aware of this since it had become his job to look after them in their pregnancy. A job that he was looking forward to leave behind. 

He noticed that none of the other men seemed to be aware of the timeline and was just nodding along with what Anthony was telling them about the large ship. 

"All the standards specs, one big kitchen, two small ones, laundry room, three community shower rooms, fifteen toilets... I'm building a sandbox for your dog as well, Bruce."

"You are aware..." said Banner in a casual humours tone "...that a sandbox is a bad idea in a place that has delicate mechanical equipment and has a risk of going into zero gravity?"

"That's part of the challenge," Anthony nodded. "Your job is to teach him how to use it, until then you're walking around with a pee-rag, a pooper scooper, and a sanitiser everywhere you go. Now that I think about it, I can modify one of the cleaningbots to follow you around and carry things for you."

"Maybe I should just give him to Happy," sighed Banner sadly. "It's not really a life for an animal..."

"Don't worry, bro, it'll be fine."

Anthony touched Banner's back and shoulder in a way that reminded Loki how tactical the man really was. He wondered how much he forced Anthony back and how long the human was going to take it. 

"You are leaving out the most important thing," Barton held up his hand. "Will we be drinking our own pee?"

"Yes, but filtered to the inch of its life. Recycling will be gospel on this trip, people. Remember that."

A signal interrupted Anthony's brave telling about how he would gallantly defy the vastness of space and build his spectacular machinery. Nobody understood him anyway, except maybe Banner and Jane, who both mostly exchanged amused looks. 

"It's Pepper," Anthony looked at his phone. "Let's go inside and take it on the bridge. We can use the emergency hatch over here."

He led them under the ship to a large porthole with a steel ladder hanging down to the ground. Barton looked very excited as he was offered to go first. 

Romanoff was second with Darcy following close behind. Her short skirt and purple stockings made Rogers blush and offer his turn on the ladder to Jane. Anthony laughed and commented on Darcy's success on something called a thigh-master. 

"Damn right," she said as she disappeared up the dimly lit hole. "I bust my ass on that thing."

"After you, babe," Anthony held out his hand to Loki. "I'll be right behind you."

Loki rolled his eyes. He had stopped minding Anthony's sexual innuendos during the four months they had been together. The jokes were innocent and, admittingly, a slightly charming part of the mortal. It would be impossible to stay in a non-sexual relationship with Anthony if Loki didn't let him let out some steam now and again. 

Loki didn't mind being admired, far from it, even if he didn't always agree or understand why. So he climbed the ladder, well aware where Anthony's eyes were looking as the man followed behind him. 

There were about fifty steps up to the bridge. Loki had been there once before, though then most of the wiring had been exposed. Now the room had been equipped with several consuls and screens. 

One of Anthony's robots, the one called You, was screwing a large panel together. It made a happy noise as Anthony climbed up on the floor. Anthony gave it a pat. 

"JARVIS, call Pepper and put her on the big screen."

A section of the large window that was looking out on the wall outside turned solid light blue. The next moment Pott's face and shoulders appeared. The screen enlarged her to four times her size making her look down on them like a intimidating giant. Anthony seemed to realise his mistake as he took a couple of steps back. She looked calm but some loose strands of hair and some tension around the mouth gave her away. 

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Checking out a ride," Anthony grinned. "What's the news?"

"I just had a four hour meeting with judge Riceman, two senators, and more lawyers than I wish to count. We have finally come to an understanding. As long as the..." She took a breath. "As long as the 'emigrants' are taking the two 'terrorists' with them, you will be left alone to do your work."

"They are still called terrorists?" Rogers frowned walking over to stand next to Anthony. 

"Yes," Potts sighed. "The terms 'war criminals' and 'murderers' were also thrown around. They didn't care if they were brainwashed or not, they are guilty of what ever is thrown at them. Your associations during the battles are also questioned. Is Darcy planning a press conference?"

"We're releasing a recorded statement," Darcy came up to the screen. "By nine o'clock tomorrow morning everyone will know we're leaving Earth. We'll decide our next move based on the reactions."

"You're coming too?" asked Banner carefully.

He looked up from a consul marked simply with the word 'HULK', its largest feature a big red button under a plastic shell marked with yellow and orange warnings. 

Banner and Darcy's relationship had not gone further than their first date. They obviously cared for each other, but Banner still held back believing he was both too old and to dangerous for her. 

"Of course I am," Darcy squared her shoulders. "I'm not letting you get away from me now, Bruce. Also, y'all like my entire social network. And of course: Space!" 

"Space," repeated Jane in a tone of reverence like it was a mantra of a secret society. 

Thor took her hand. Loki smiled. As long as they avoided the Void, he was happy with space as well. 

Potts gave a sad smile, to Anthony's heartbreak she wouldn't be joining them. 

"They were also kind enough to make a list of people that they thought you could take with you."

She looked away as she did something to her computer. A list with about fifty names appeared on a closely screen. Rogers quickly read through it, Anthony coming up to him to read over his shoulder. They huffed and shook their heads several times before letting Banner have a look. 

"I can't take both Doctor Doom and Magneto, where should I put them? Do you think they would agree to be roommates? I can build a bunk bed."

"Do they want to get rid of us or kill us?" asked Rogers. "They have both Logan and Deadpool on this stud list."

"Thanks, Pep," Anthony smiled up at her. "You're a gem."

"I know," she smiled sadly again and turned off her end of the communication, letting the screen go first blue and then clear. 

Anthony sighed. Loki sent him an encouraging smile. This move was loosing the mortal his two oldest and closest friends. Not only Potts but also Hogan would stay behind. Potts didn't want to leave Stark Industries, and Hogan didn't want to leave her. 

"I want a bunk bed," said Barton.

"I call top bunk," called Romanoff. 

"Leaving your crazy sex-life aside," Anthony rubbed his hands together. "We should get to work. There are some things I want you to to get for me."

"That you want me to steal, you mean?" Barton smirked. 

"Take back, actually." 

"The missing Hellicarrier engines you mean? The ones on the government lock up? In care you haven't noticed, Tony, I'm a little guy with a bow. The engines are the same size of the ship we arrived in. I can't just put four of them on my back and sneak out of a high security area without being noticed." 

"You only need to take some components of the engines. And as for carrying and sneaking out, that's why Loki's coming with you."

"Fuck," Barton sighed. 

Loki felt the same.


	3. Thoughts running through my mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is working on the ship, thinking of Loki, and getting a few more passengers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not late, it's still Sunday for a few more minutes in my time zone.
> 
> A lot of info in this chapter, hope it's not too confusing.

Twenty weeks. That is what Tony had said it would take to build the engines. 

The basic plan that Tony had worked out, so far, was to make the Heidrun flight worthy in two months and take off into space. 

From there it was going to take him the next seventeen weeks to re-build the engines to be powerful enough to leave the solar-system. Tony had an idea for a 'hyper-engine á la warp-drive', but most of it could only be built in zero gravity, and the preparation work on it was only just starting.

The last week they were going to circle Jupiter and use the gas-giant's gravity to give power to help slingshot them out of the solar-system. The momentum was important since they would need to turn off the engines while putting in the final touches as they passed Saturn. Once there they really would get some good hyper-speed in and finally get down to business. 

Tony, Jane, and Bruce, had tried to explain this procedure to the others several times. They even gone so far as using an orange and a saltshaker to illustrate the procedure, but it only ended with Bruce smashing the orange to a pulp and needing to take a time-out to test the special Hulk-proofed airlock first hand. 

Loki had laughed so hard he had almost fallen over. He had allowed Tony to take his hand and steady him, which Tony saw as great progress between them. Loki had quickly pulled his hand back, but it still showed great trust. 

Because Tony had more or less accepted that they were never going to be physically close moments like that really lightened up his day. It was hard work restating a libido that had been working on overdrive for almost thirty years, but so far he had managed on his own. 

They had tried it out a few times with Loki watching him take care of business, but Loki's sometimes invasive technical questions and slightly repulsed look had been hard to handle. Or not so hard as the case may had been.

Four months, by the way, broke his previous no-sex record, though that record was as set while being in a cave in Afghanistan so he was't sure how validated it was. The record before that was a week at a male-only rehabilitation centre were, incredibly enough, none of the other patients had managed to be even a tiny bit bi-curious. 

But however frustrating the lack of sex and touch could be from time to time, Tony had never once regretted the relationship with Loki. He was deeply in love and that would, hopefully, let him bare through it. He would get used to it with time, hopefully.

At the moment Tony was working on a part of the front landing gear, adjusting it to accommodate the many different surfaces they might be forced to land on. Not that this ship would land often, it was too big and energy-consuming for that. 

Two smaller ships that was to be used for landing parties were currently under construction. Tony had wanted to build them himself, but had realised his time limitations and outsourced the work to Reed Baxter who had only been glad to help. Too glad in fact, he thought suspiciously.

He'd rather work on the outlet of engine three, but he wasn't allowed to go there at the moment. Bruce was at the other end of the great hall testing the radiation protection plates.

The Iron Man suit Mark XL could take the radiation easily, but Bruce wasn't taking any chances before all the tests had been made. So Tony was stuck with the welding. 

He was wearing his normal casual work-clothes, long leather gloves, and one of his Iron Man helmets. The helmet was better than a ordinary welder's mask since it could help him calculate the welding better. Not that he needed help, he was a master welder, but to get it safe for space he needed to double-check everything five times. The lives of his friends were literally in his hands. 

Clint was sitting sitting on a scaffold halfway up the ship studying blueprints of the government facility that he and Loki were going to break into. He had several larger pieces of paper scattered around him, making his seat resemble a nest of some sort. 

Loki was on an errand to somewhere only he knew to exchange some of Tony's Earth money to something called 'credits'. It was apparently the most common form of payment in the galaxy. These were the practical things you never thought off when you spontaneously decided to run away fro your own planet. 

Tony didn't want to admit that he was a bit worried every time Loki was out of his sight, the guy wasn't exactly well liked outside their little sphere of people. That was why Loki had come to them in the first place, to seek shelter and protection. Now he was off world somewhere, stupidly alone, and Tony was not going to have an anxiety attack...

"JARVIS? Any sight of him yet?"

"No, Sir," answered the AI in his ear sounding more calmly than he had a right to. 

He was going bring JARVIS along as the ship's computer and leave a mirror-copy to take care of Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy. The copy wouldn't be sentient, at least not in the same way as the original JARVIS was sentient. It might be in a few years though, all the basics would be there, but things like that couldn't be programmed, they needed to evolve. Tony only let his thoughts lightly linger on his three oldest and closest friends for a moment, more than that would be too painful. 

When he found out that neither of them would join him he had almost abandoned the whole plan, but now there was no way to back out of it. 

He took a deep breath and continued welding. It was easy to loose himself in work, and this project wasn't running no out of things to do any time soon. Two months suddenly seemed too short a time to finish everything before take off.

He was also waiting for Steve and Sam to return from their little shopping trip. If you could call buying twenty car-batteries, three kilometres of copper wires, and a half a year's consumption of tinned vegetables a little shopping trip.

Tony looked up as the doors to the elevator opened up. He hoped it was Loki but he expected it to be Peter Parker to whom he had promised the first scoop of the Avenger's departure before the big press conference, but was surprised to see Coulson, Hill, and a young man and a young woman he had never seen before, stepping out instead. 

Clint made a call sounding something between relief and indignation. 

"You bastards! Where have you been?" he called down to them. "You shits left me in charge! Me!"

"It really was a horrible thing to do," said Tony taking off his helmet and holding it in his hand as he walked over to greet the newcomers. "I still have nightmares."

"We were trapped in a Hydra bunker," said Coulson putting down two big dark duffel bags on the floor. "You don't want to know anymore than that. Trust me."

Tony actually did want to know more about it, but restrained himself. He should really learn to leave the affairs of Earth to those who would be left taking care of it. 

"You two crazy kids eloping?" he looked down at the bags. "Do you want me to conduct a shotgun wedding? I am fully licensed. I married Clint and Nat, you know, it was a beautiful ceremony."

"We're coming with you," said Hill in a no-nonsense voice. 

"The more the merrier," shrugged Tony. "Just as long as you are aware of the whole bargain. Life-long mission, recycling everything, food rations..."

"We're coming with you," repeated the very scary woman. "You need experienced pilots don't you?"

She was right there, agreed Tony. Clint and Nat were both excellent pilots but they would be much busier in a few months with the baby. 

There was of course a question of weight for the extra supplies that would be needed for two more persons onboard. Then again, Hill and Coulson wouldn't need half as much supplies as Steve, Bucky, and Thor did. Then again, again, Tony had already expected to take on more crew. Dr Kingsley was already onboard equipping the med-bay.

"Are they coming too?" Tony looked at the two young people that stood avast starring at the ship like the second coming was to emerge from it. "Hello?"

They turned to look at him and the helmet in his hand, gasped, and then they grasped each other's hands like teenagers. The young man started to stammer out words that sounded something like Tony being his biggest role model and how nice it was to meet him. The woman just opened and closed her mouth in what seemed like awe and then she blushed quite red.

"Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz," introduced Coulson with a stern but fatherly smile. "The best bio-engineer and mechanic engineer that SHEILD has to offer. They are volunteering, I have not promised them anything other than my recommendations."

Tony looked them over. They were in their mid-twenties, cute, and at the moment too star-stuck by his presence to make any sense. But if they came with Coulson's recommendations they couldn't be totally disastrous. 

"Are they eloping?" he lowered his voice and asked carefully.

"No," said Hill.

Clint had climbed down from the scaffold to join them. Coulson smiled at him in greeting before looking around. 

"Where's Loki?" 

"Exchanging money, or whatever they use out there in space," Tony shrugged not letting on his worries. "Apparently my enormous amounts of Earth money won't work out there, go figure."

"Don't worry, Stark," Hill smirked. "I bet you are still going to be filthy rich where ever we are."

"Of course," Tony grinned. "I expect nothing less. And if push comes to shove I'm sure we can sell Steve and Bucky as a mercenaries to space pirates, or Clint to a flying circus. Also, Thor is the next king of Asgard, we won't starve."

"I can be a mercenary too, you know," pouted Clint.

"Sure you can sweetheart," Tony patted his back. "You'll be the first one we sell."

"Damn right."

An irritated grunt was heard from the ship and they all turned to look. It came from the bridge emergency hatch that still was used as the main entrance to the ship. It was mostly for convenience and necessity since the intended entrance was about ten meters up and for the moment only accessible by scaffolding. There were other things to prioritise, like life-support and drainage. 

The grunt could only come from Thor since he was the only one whose shoulders were a bit too broad for the hatch. Tony wouldn't like to imagine what would happen if the big guy got stuck in there, like an adult man in a covered slide on a playground. Actually, that would be kind of funny. Loki would love it. 

Luckily, or sadly, Thor managed to squeeze out and jump the last distance to the floor. 

"Greetings," he said to the four newcomers before turning to Tony. "Any news of Loki?"

Tony wasn't the only one worried.

"No," he sighed. "I wish he had let me put a tracking device on him."

"The Galaxy Reserve's security wouldn't have liked that," Thor sighed. "He would be in more danger if you had."

This didn't assure Tony. He turned to Hill. 

"Climb aboard and see if you can find Nat. She's familiarising herself with the controls. It's like a combined Helicarrier-quinjet-spacewhale kind of thing. Im sure you'll get the hang of it."

"Sounds fascinating," Hill took her duffel bag and put it on like a backpack before taking to the ladder to the hatch. 

Tony looked at Coulson.

"You sure about this? What about SHEILD?" 

"SHEILD is blown," Coulson sighed. "Most of our secrets are out, everyone is scattered, even the World Council has moved on. There is only one SHEILD team left, the ones I've worked with since New York. They are ready, willing, and able to fill in the gap the Avengers will leave behind, but they won't be SHEILD. That's gone."

Tony nodded. He had only known about SHEILD for a few years but he knew that both his father and his auntie Peggy had been two of the founders, and it felt a bit sad to see it go. His father had even died for it... No, he still couldn't muster up enough feelings to feel sad for Howard, maybe disappointment on his behalf but nothing more.

"Have you heard from Fury?"

"He's considering a teaching position at Xavier's school," smirked the former agent. 

Tony laughed out loud. He could just imagine Fury with a class full of underage mutants. 

"It's almost worth staying just to see that," Tony laughed again. "Get inside you as well, JARVIS will show your little ones what needs to be done."

The young scientists... Why did Tony call them that? He was still young, even if he was twenty years older than them. Look at Loki, he was ancient and still looked younger than Tony. Though he was an alien so that didn't count. What was the point he wanted to make again? 

He watched the _younger ___scientists as they thanked him with bows and spluttering before being herded away by Coulson towards the ladder. Tony sighed. He wound need to review their work and spend some time with them before he decided to let them come with or not. So far they had not impressed.

_Though on the other side, Tony was totally awesome and meeting him was cool._

_"Are they joining us on our travels?" asked Thor._

_"We shall put them to the test," said Tony, glancing to Clint._

_"I've only met them briefly once of twice before," shrugged the archer. "They are brilliant with tech though."_

_"Anyone who can work a toaster is brilliant with tech to you."_

_"Those are indeed marvellous machines," agreed Thor._

_Clint was about to talk back or make a joke but was interrupted by Loki arriving in a small, but not less theatrical, puff of smoke. Tony let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Loki gave him a smile showing that he fully knew what effect he had on Tony._

_"Babe," Tony grinned._

_"Infant," Loki smirked as walked up to them. "You will be pleased to find that you are almost as rich as a whole quarter of the population of the planet of Xandar put together, and that's not counting what you choose to bring with to use in trade."_

_"Is that good?"_

_"So they told me, personally I have no idea," Loki looked around. "The worlds outside the Nine Realms are but a blur to me, and I grew up in a golden palace. Speaking of blurs, hello Thor, how unnecessary to see you."_

_"Brother," Thor nodded._

_Loki didn't seem to like the epithet, but accepted it gracefully. Tony really wished they would talk it out, but there was more between them than could be fixed by Thor getting a epiphany brought on by magic. Loki had tried to explain some of it, then but often got too upset to continue._

_"Do I get a card, or code, or something?" asked Tony._

_"Both," Loki handed over a leather package the size of a standard wallet. "It's coded to your DNA and you'll have to choose a special code first time you use it, make sure it's a good one so they won't steal it."_

_"How do I know what is a good one? How advanced are their levels of cryptanalysis? And who are 'they'?"_

_"How should I know?"_

_"Great. Thanks." Tony placed the package in his pocket and decided to look it over later. "Did you run into any trouble?"_

_"I was recognised by some traders of Asgard, and they weren't happy, but I was perfectly safe within the Galaxy Reserve. Representing such a large account apparently gives some benefits with the security. Once I was outside I was quick to sneak of."_

_"I'm glad you are safe."_

_"I'm not a child," Loki hissed but his eyes were more amused than angry. "Go back to your work, Anthony, I'm sure there is much of it to do. Barton and I have things to go and steal for you."_

_Tony laughed and put on his helmet._

_"Give us a kiss."_

_Loki rolled his eyes and pecked the golden metal between the glowing eyes of the mask._

_It had been a happy day when Tony discovered that Loki didn't feel as uncomfortable touching the suit as touching him directly. He had noticed that Loki was having no problem patting the bots when they sought attention and had simply asked him why._

_Loki had compared the bots to pets, which by the way he didn't mind touching either. After some respectful tests the suit seemed to place just between a robot and a man. It was clearly not Loki's favourite thing but it was one of the few things that he complied to go along with if only to humour Tony. Tony tried not to take advantage of it too often, but sometimes it was hard not to._

_He happily returned to his welding. Though he didn't miss Loki whispering something to Thor before leaving with Clint for the elevator._

_What caught his eye was the look of mixed horror and excitement on Thor's face. Something was definitely up and Tony's curiosity was immediately awoken._


	4. Power drainage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashbacks of what Loki did other than visiting the Galaxy Reserve.   
> And a POV from Bucky as he follows Clint and Loki on their mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know anything about Montana or its native population, all is conjecture. 
> 
> Also, I'm sorry...

Loki had left Midgard by one of the ancient secret passages. 

The closest to Anthony's bunker was buried in a deep cave in the great mountains that could be seen stretched over the horizon. While Loki had the strength to teleport himself to the proximity of the cave, his magic and body failed him to go any further. 

The cave was guarded by proud black-haired race of humans selling tickets and handcraft to visitors. Anthony had given him, apart from the trust of his fortune in form of several magnetic cards, codes, blood samples, and fingerprints, some paper money that the cave's sentinels gracefully accepted before giving him entry. 

As soon as he was out of sight from the mouth of the cave, and some other visitors had passed him by, he had abruptly left the assigned boardwalk that was built to best show of the paintings on the walls, and hurried down one of the tunnels. It was only illuminated by electric lighting a few steps in, then there was darkness. Loki lit a blue flame in his palm. 

It had been centuries since he last was there but he had found the chiseled out surface easily. It was decorated with red faded fingerprinted images of tall men, big beasts, and stars. 

Opening the portal came with a sting of pain in his scared gut, but soon he was able to step through to the other side. A small rock face ledge with sides plummeting down to a deep river of lava. 

Ah, Niflheim, how Loki hadn't missed the place. 

Luckily he only had needed to move a step to the right to find the next passage, a crack in the stone, that had brought him to a underground river passage in Vanheim. He had taken a moment to breathe some non-toxic air. 

From there he needed to find transport that would bring him outside the Nine Realms and on to the Galaxy Reserve. But first he had needed to go to Asgard. He had had an important errand to run. 

/////

Bucky stood on the surface of the Stark bunker. For those who didn't know there was a bunker it must look like a small abandoned airfield with a few derelict buildings. It was far enough away from any civilisation not to have been vandalised. 

He would have known though. He would have known that there was something secret under the ground. It was in the stretch of the runway, the ware of the pathways, and the shape of the houses. There was only one hangar, just large enough to store the quinjet, The elevator down was obviously disguised by the hangar wall. 

What bothered him the most was how he knew all this, because he had no memory of learning how to look for it. He remembered finding places like this before. And he remembered what he had done once he was inside them. 

He clenched and unclenched his metal fist as he stared out over the prairie towards the mountains. After four months he had finally learned to live without physical pain. Now he had to learn how to live with the rest of it. He was glad he was leaving Earth, everything he cared for here was either dead, painful, or coming with him. 

Steve, Steve was coming with him. He wondered if Steve was coming with because of him. There was plenty of things on Earth for Steve to stay for. That had sounded good in his head but he doubted if he ever could find the words to put together into a question to ask his friend. That sentence probably also sounded better in his head. 

As on cue he could now see a large dust cloud approaching from the west. It was Steve and Sam returning with a large truck of supplies and materials. They had been gone for over six hours at this point. It was what Bucky had been up there waiting for. 

He lifted the radio he had been holding to his mouth. 

"Topside to Down Under. Shipment's here," he said. 

"Down Under here," answered Stark's voice. "We're on our way. Out."

Bucky lowered the radio and watched a second, smaller, dust cloud that was following the large truck. He frowned and changed the frequency on the radio. 

"Base to Truck," he held up his metal arm in a way he knew would catch the sun precisely to cast a glare towards the vehicles, again, he had no idea how or why he knew that. "Are you being followed?"

"Truck here," said Sam's voice. "Yeah, it's a TV-crew. We have tried everything to get rid of them, but not even Steve's baby blue eyes could persuade them to back off. Over." 

"You want me to take them out?" Bucky was only half-joking since he was just rediscovering his sense of humour and wasn't sure how to use it yet. 

"No!" called Steve in the background. 

Bucky smirked. Sam laughed. 

"Negative. Then we would really be stuck with them."

They shouldn't have sent Steve out for supplies. He was too recognisable, then again who of the Avengers wasn't at this point? They could have sent the former SHEILD agents, but Hill had 'flight school' and Coulson was helping Darcy with damage control. They should come and control this damage. 

Bucky turned to see Stark and Banner emerge from the elevator hangar. The seemed to notice the second vehicle as well, it was recognisable as a TV-crew now. Stark sighed. 

"And those two are supposed to be professionals," he sighed. "Can't they shake a tail?"

"I suppose it's hard to do that..." said Banner adjusting his glasses "...driving a giant truck through the flat prairie."

"Excuses," Stark huffed and combed his fingers through his hair. "Hey, Bucky, can you please get down below? I don't want to let on we're letting you run around free. We are in enough trouble with the public at the moment."

The biggest of their trouble with the public was that they were taking Captain America away. Bucky knew he was blamed for most of it. Mostly because the public only had two solid facts to go on. One: He was the 'Washington Terrorist', and two: Steve was leaving because of him. 

"Fine." 

Bucky handed Banner the radio and headed inside the hangar towards the elevator. He didn't like being sent away but he didn't like to be trouble either. It was strange, because he remembered, vaguely, that he loved trouble in his youth.

His youth, he smirked bitterly. He was ninety-three years old, and the only way he remembered the passing of time after his twenty-first birthday was pain, cold, and killing. It wasn't exactly the best and reliable way to record your age. 

He noticed Loki and Barton standing by the quinjet, he could hear them talking. 

"Are you sure?" said Barton. "We can postpone it. You just came back from a mission, shouldn't you be resting?"

"We can't postpone it," hissed Loki. "It's now that they have the least guards, and the scientists are out. We are going to be more exposed by the minute with the heralds' arriving. Also, I don't need any rest. I'm fine."

Bucky knew when Loki was lying. They might not have talked much during the last few months but Bucky was en expert in looking for weaknesses. He was an trained assassin, weaknesses were his business. Facing a lying god of lies didn't make any difference. 

Barton must have felt the same, not having Bucky's long experience but having once been Loki's second in command. He only gave Loki a doubting look. 

Bucky came closer, they looked up. 

"Just the kind of guy we were looking for," said Barton. "We need a third guy to get into the government facility, you interested?"

"What do I need to do?" Bucky walked over to them. 

He was wary though, he had promised not to take any risks. But then again, they were going into space, wasn't that the greatest risk of all? Bucky still didn't know what his task would be on the ship. Other than perhaps acting like a back-up pilot, there was no obvious job for him aboard. He had no scientific or administrative skill sets to talk about. 

Maybe they really would end up selling him as a mercenary, he had overheard Stark talking before. 

"Nothing unsavoury," Loki looked him over appraisingly as if trying to figure out his weight.

"Just backup," said Barton. "Watch Loki's back, and maybe create a distraction if needed. Loki needs to focus on the loot and I on getting us in and out." 

"Sure," Bucky shrugged. "But don't tell Steve."

"No problem, this place is going to be crawling with press in a few hours, if we gonna do this we're doing it now." Barton handed Bucky a small semi-automatic pistol and two boxes of ammo. "Rubber bullets and tranquillisers, use your judgement, preferably you don't have to use them at all."

Bucky put the ammo in his pockets and inspected the weapon, it felt good in his hand, like coming home. Steve wouldn't like to hear that, on the other hand, Steve was a soldier as well. He would most certainly feel the same, but at least he had the morals to feel bad about it. 

"Good," Loki loosened a belt from his waist. "Hold on to this." 

"Aren't we flying?" Bucky nodded towards the quinjet. 

"Loki's teleporting us to the facility outside Washington," told Barton while winding the belt twice around his hand and handing the other end to Bucky. "We're flying home, hopefully."

Bucky took the offered piece of the belt, winding it around his hand as well. Loki took a few breaths and grabbed hold of the middle of the belt. The next moment there was a bright light and then they were somewhere else. 

This was also a far too familiar feeling to Bucky. It was almost as waking up from chryo-sleep not knowing anything except that there was going to be a mission and a target. This was a slightly more dizzying sensation though. He managed to stay on his feet, and through the belt managed to keep Barton upright as the man wobbled a bit. 

Loki had let go as soon as they arrived. He looked even more nauseous than Barton, breathing hard and clearly forcing himself not put a hand to his stomach. 

They were standing on a narrow path, squeezed in beside a grey brick building and a high wire fence with another building in the other side. Bucky's best guess was that the path was an unofficial shortcut of some sort.

"Camera blind spot," said Barton looking around. "Found it on a satellite image. Right, the plan is that I'm going in there in as an official employee of Stark Industries. They have some things inside that they confiscated from Tony that they now have agreed to give back, including a small executive jet."

"Full of spyware of course," said Bucky. 

"Look at you learning all new words," the archer teased. "Once inside I'll set out Loki's guide stones."

"They help me when I teleport blindly into a new place," Loki made a gesture and produced three small green gems from nothing in his palm, he gave them to Barton. 

"On the other side of that building is a yard," Barton continued. "On the other side of that is a warehouse. What they have from the engines will probably be displayed on the floor. You're going to grab anything that's either glowing, looks like glass but isn't window glass, and anything similar to silver. I'll take care of the cameras. Loki, you okay?"

Loki was leaning against the wall, looking like he was going to throw up.

"Just a bit of headache," Loki grimaced. "I'm fine." 

Barton gave him a look, the same as back in the hangar, but nodded. 

"When you are ready, you teleport to the plane, and we head back to base. Tony said not to worry about the spyware, so we won't. He'll take care of it. You got the plan?"

Bucky have an affirmative nod. Barton nodded back, glanced at Loki who also gave a nod, and then he hurried away. He turned the corner and then was gone. Bucky leaned against the wall next to Loki. 

"Do you blame yourself?" asked Loki suddenly. 

"Hm?" Bucky looked at him. 

This was the first time the two of them ever had been alone together in four months. Bucky knew exactly what he meant. 

It was the two of them, Loki with the attack of New York and Bucky with Washington, that had brought on the situation that the Avengers now was in. Neither of them had been ultimately responsible, both being tools of a power larger than themselves, but the responsibility had still been given to them. 

And now over a dozen people was to leave their home planet for ever because of them. People they both cared for, even loved. 

"Do you?" he asked back. 

"Sometimes," Loki sighed finally giving in and rubbing his stomach. "I was brought up to be a god. Gods are infallible, though I never really believed that, since I grew up with Thor."

"I grew up with Steve," Bucky tried to remember but only got fragments, most of them were of pulling Steve out of fights with bullies. "It is our fault that they have to leave," he clenched and unclenched his metal hand. "They would do so much better just sending the two of us away."

"Perhaps, but they are not that kind of people."

"Maybe we should just leave instead."

"I have thought of it," Loki stood up as if getting ready to move. "But I'm a glutton for what ever it is that Anthony gives me, and I want to keep it until he realises his mistake."

"Will he do that?" Bucky followed him.

"Later rather than sooner," Loki held out the belt to him, Bucky took it and wrapped it around his wrist. "Barton has set the stones."

Bucky thought of Steve. He and Steve were friends, Steve would say the best friends. Problem was that Steve had spent the last seventy years asleep while Bucky had spent them getting his brains scrambled and killing people. If Loki hadn't settled his mind four months ago, where would he be now? 

Would Steve still be as devoted? 

Was Bucky's mind even settled?

He was so deep in thought that he actually lost his balance after they teleported into the ware house. He was soon back to his senses though. 

Two uniformed guards were standing by the wall as they arrived, Bucky put a tranquilliser each in them before they even noticed that anyone was there. They fell against each other and then to the floor. 

"Let's get on with it," Loki grimaced badly. "The quicker we can get out of here the better."

They had arrived into a large room, similar to a hangar. It was empty except for the five of Stark's engines that were strewn in prices across the floor. Whom ever was picking them apart had been good enough to expose most of the mechanical innards. 

Loki had already walked up to the closest engine and started pulling it apart with his bare hands. Bucky shrugged and followed his example with the next one. It was the first field test for his new arm. Four months of practice, simulations and minor exercises had paid off. It was easy to tare through metal and wires to get to the desired parts. 

Glowing things, glass, and silver. It was easy, except for the glowing things that he only could touch with his metal hand, it burned the skin on the other. He sorted it in three piles for Loki and moved on to the next one. He did two engines, Loki did three. When he looked again the piles where gone, he had no idea where Loki had stored them away since there was no bag nor bulging pockets. 

Then the door opened, two more uniformed guards entered, each of their rifles aimed at Loki and Bucky. 

"Freeze! Military Police!"

Bucky sighed and shot both of them with the tranquillisers almost without looking. The old days were really coming back to him. Steve would be so disappointed. Though then again, Bucky doubted that Steve would had given himself up in the same situation. 

Steve would have pretended to give up and then punched the guards out when they were close enough. Steve was the kind of guy that made trouble in your face not at a distance behind a gun, that was Bucky's job. 

For a moment Bucky was overwhelmed by memories and emotions. But there wasn't any time, the sound of several boots were coming down the corridor outside the room. 

Bucky raised the gun to shoot again, but Loki grabbed hold of the belt dangling from his wrist. The next moment both had teleported. They were tangled together on the purple carpeted floor inside of a small executive jet. 

Loki pushed himself away from Bucky. 

"All aboard and buckle up," called Barton's voice from the speakers. "I'm taking off without authorisation and we will be pursued!"

"This day only gets better," breathed Loki. 

Then he fainted. 

Bucky caught him just in time before he hit the floor. 

//////

Loki had arrived to the Asgard royal gardens through a hole in the ground. He had been forced to dig it out with his own hands, preserving his magic for later. He had dirt and muck everywhere, even in his ears, but what better way was there to avoid the eyes of Heimdal than with an entry that hadn't even existed before? 

From the gardens he had snuck his way into the outer city, hiding himself with spells, the dirt on his face, and the hood of his cloak. He navigated the backsides of the grand buildings with the same ease as he had done while exploring them as a child. Not much had changed in all those years, but that was Asgard for you. 

He had finally reached the right building. It didn't look much compared to the others of the city, it was circular and had no ornaments other than those simply carved into the wood. It was made entirely of wood. There were no trees on Asgard, and this house was the reason why. 

It was the original palace, the very first construction ever made in the Nine Realms. It was a miracle that there even was magic strong enough to keep up its existence. 

Loki had reverently touched the wood, the only thing older than this was the universe itself. It was a pity that it now had to exist on a world that revealed in violence and simple pleasures, reduced to a party hall only visited once a year by a feast that always threatened to tare it down. 

The Feast of Rejuvenation. 

There was only one grand room. It was filled with garbage and leftovers from scores of previous feasts. Among it were the cases of small empty bottles of Idun's potion. 

The potion itself was guarded as well as the greatest treasure on Asgard, but no one thought of the vessel it came in, and what might have been left behind inside it after the drink had been consumed. 

Loki had smirked. He had taken one of the bottles between his thumb and forefinger and then carefully blown some of his cold Jotun breath inside. The sides of the bottle were covered in ice, as it melted a single tiny drop of potion gathered on the bottom. 

This was going to take some time.


	5. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony shows off the ship to Peter Parker and makes friends with Fitz and Simmons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is more preparing than I thought before these people can leave Earth. For the most part I have no idea where this is going.

Two men, one holding a microphone like a battle axe and the other hefting a large camera like a missile launcher, had jumped out of the TV-van almost before it had even stopped and then descended on Tony like vultures at a free for all slaughter house.

"Mr Stark!" shouted the man with the microphone, he was about thirty with a badly tied tie. "What do you say to all your loving fans that feels you have betrayed them by having an affair with the alien man who killed hundreds of people and nearly destroyed New York?!"

The microphone was pressed so far under Tony's nose that it tickled his moustache. 

"My loving fans?" he stared at the rude man. "What about what I love? Doesn't that matter?"

"So you feel you have no public responsibility?"

"I've never been responsible, ask anyone."

"What about your team? Aren't you responsible for them?"

"It's totally their prerogative if they want me to be responsible for them or not, they are all adults and can look after themselves."

"Mr Stark.."

"I'm not allowed to answer anymore questions. I'm afraid that you have to wait for the online press conference. As you can see I have some supplies to unload."

"Why are you running away?"

"I'm not running away," Tony started walking. "I'm just leaving. And by the way, please don't cross the invisible line."

"What line?" 

"The invisible one," he called over his shoulder. "It triggers the tactical defence system if you're not tagged in."

He walked over to the truck. Steve and Sam had already opened up the back and Bruce was looking over the loading sheet. 

"Do we have a tactical defence system?" smirked Bruce. 

"We have you."

"I feel so much safer now."

They unloaded the truck together, Steve doing most of the heavy carrying. After a few minutes Thor came up as well to lend a hand. He was very quiet, but Tony guessed that he was as worried about Loki as he was. 

The journalists stood what Tony thought what they thought was as close to the 'line' as possible. Tony really hoped they had supplies and gas to get back home. Otherwise he would have to help them and that would just be embarrassing for everyone.

Peter Parker and his camera had arrived with the truck as well, but he didn't want to show himself nor Spider-Man to the journalists so Thor had to carry him inside the hanger disguised as a sack of flour or something like that. It looked quite funny. 

The kid was very impressed as Tony showed him around the underground building site. They had only known each other four months but Tony get that he was really going to miss Peter as well. If things were different the kid could totally have become Tony's protege. As it were, all Tony could do was to give him the photographic scoop of the century, and of course a bank account that would keep the spider quite happy for the rest of his life. 

They found Natasha and Hill on the bridge, familiarising themselves with the controls. Tony had tried to design it as user friendly as possible. Originally he hadn't known how many people were going to go with him, so it was quite possible steering the ship with only one person, with some help from JARVIS of course. 

Peter wasn't allowed to take any close ups in there. Tony feared, with good reason, that someone could try to re-engineer something without knowing what they were doing. Or knowing exactly what they were doing and use it wrongly. Hydra was still out there after all.

He was going to leave some of his blueprints with Stark Industries, and some with Reed Richards and a few other scientists that he trusted. It was the best he could do, he couldn't be held responsible for what happened after he left. 

"Hill is going to be our head pilot," he explained to Peter. "She'll have Nat and Clint as co-pilots. Sam and Bucky will also get a crash course so they can help out if needed."

"Night shifts," smirked Nat.

Tony laughed. 

"When the baby is born you will beg me to give you the night shifts." 

Natasha had laughed bak, but not sounded as amused over the prospect. 

"She's just nervous," said Tony as he led Peter deeper into the ship. "First all-human baby that will be born in space and all that. Let me show you the bedrooms, it's probably what people will be most curious about..."

There were twenty-one rooms about three by four meters that could be used as bedrooms. It was a whole section broken off from one of the crashed helicarriers fitted in like an advanced piece of Lego into the ship. Tony wasn't sure yet how many of the rooms they were going to use since not all sleeping arrangements had been sorted yet. 

Nat and Clint would be sharing, Thor and Jane as well. So far those were the only requests for sharing that had come in, it was quite exciting waiting for possible pairings. The unoccupied rooms would be used for 'alone-time'. One room would be set aside for a nursery with three cots.

Tony and Loki was sharing a room as well. It was gong to be difficult occupying the small space without touching too much, but it would help Loki getting more used to being close to him and for Tony to win back his trust. 

They had a body pillow separating them at night. It had been Loki's idea. Not only because he disliked being woken by wandering hands, but also because Tony had a tendency to look for something to hug in his sleep because of the anxiety connecting to his post-traumatic stress. 

At least he had stopped calling the suit in his sleep after getting the pillow, which was a big relief for everyone. 

"This is quite nice," said Peter waking Tony from his musings and taking a few pictures of one of the non-assigned rooms. "It kind of reminds me of my first flat."

"It looks nothing like my first flat," Tony smiled. 

But it seemed that it would be his last. The thought made him feel sad and guilty. 

He knew there was intelligent life out there, he was dating an alien and had a brand new bank account to prove it, but there was also danger. How much responsibility _did_ he have for his friends?

They moved on to the common room. It wasn't fully furnished yet since Tony was still waiting on several things being packed and shipped from the Tower in New York. Among other things, a pool table. It had a sofa and a play station though. 

There was also a large window that would have a great view out in space but for the moment only showed a dull metal and concrete wall. 

Darcy was sitting on the sofa sorting through files on three different StarkPads and her phone. She smiled at Peter and Tony as they entered. Peter took her picture. 

"Wait," she said. "Get my good side."

"Which one is that?" asked Peter. 

"Can't you tell?" She pulled her fingers through her messy hair and made a duck face. "All of them!" 

Peter laughed and took a few more pictures while she did some exaggerated model poses. Tony smiled. 

"Send that one to Bruce," he said after a particularly flirty shoot. "Is everything ready for the press conference?"

"Yes," Darcy fell back in to a, slightly, more professional role. "I'm writing Steve a statement."

"Steve?"

"According to polls he's still the most popular one," she shrugged with one shoulder. "Being best friends with war criminals, isn't as bad as dating them, apparently. Also, people think you broke up with him for Loki so he's got a sympathy vote."

"I can't believe this!" Tony sighed. "Fine, Steve's making the statement. I'll just stand back and look pretty."

"Your greatest talent," Darcy winked at him. "By the way, boss, I figured out what I want to be."

"Oh?"

Tony had asked them all what they wanted their jobs to be on the ship. Some were obvious as Hill as the chief pilot, Kingsley as the medic, and Bruce and Jane as scientists are n their fields, but not all were like that. Sam had volunteered as a part time personnel officer, and Coulson as the one responsible for inventories and other paperwork. 

They still had no idea what Thor was going to do. But since the guy had the ability to more or less come and go as he pleased, even in space, thanks to his magic hammer, no one was really worried about him. Except maybe Jane, but that was for other reasons. 

The roles of cooks and cleaners would be on rotation, those not knowing how to cook would either learn to or take up more cleaning. The organisation of the rotation was part of Coulson's paperwork. 

Darcy had had a bit of trouble since, while she still would function as Tony's assistant, there wasn't much other she could do onboard. She had asked to think it over, and had now apparently come up with something. 

"I'm going to be the Morality Officer," she said proudly. "Setting up game nights, recommending activities, making a newsletter, keeping Bruce from Hulking out, and so on."

That was actually an aspect of the journey that Tony hadn't thought of. Physical and mental, yes, but not so much for the soul. He had just decided to load up the databases with all the books, music, games, and movies he could find and hope for the best. The thought of actually organising it was genius. 

He felt proud of the girl for thinking of it, and he told her so as well. She tried to keep her professionalism but failed for blushing and smiling. 

"My first order of business is to clear the database of as many ongoing TV- and book-series as possible, we do not need the no-updates-available angst. Trust me, I've been burned before."

"Good plan," nodded Peter. 

"Sir?" called JARVIS. "Captain Rogers is asking where Sergeant Barnes is."

"Don't you know?" Tony looked around as if Bucky was hiding in a dark corner, because it wouldn't be impossible that he was. 

"Sergeant Barnes is with Loki and Agent Barton on their mission to retrieve your confiscated parts, sir. Though I believe if I told Captain Rogers this he would insist on following them." 

"Best friend my ass," signed Tony. "Either they are lovers or a mother chicken and her son, you don't see me micromanaging Bruce's every step. Fine, tell him Bucky's taking a nap or something. And tell him to get over here to practice his statement to the press."

"Yes, sir."

Tony and Peter said good bye to Darcy and moved on to the science section of the ship. This too was put together mostly by helicarrier parts, but Tony had put in some extra touches from his own workshops as well. 

Speaking of workshops, he had one. It was small, about the size of one of the bedrooms, but it was his and his alone. It would be a perfect place to stress out in, and play his music as loud as he wanted. He showed it to Peter, but didn't allow any photos. 

In the Main Science Room (yes, Tony was great at naming stuff) they met up with Fitz and Simmons. They were studying one of the holographic engine-rebuild blueprints. It was obviously very fascinating since it took them about ten seconds before realising Tony was in the room and froze like two terrified mice. And just as cute. 

Those ten seconds listening in on their conversation, though, had convinced Tony that the two scientists would be great assets. It seemed like they already had figured out what Tony was trying to do with the engines and were now discussing improvements. 

Also, Fitz stammer and sometimes loss for words wasn't connected solely to Tony's presence, but some kind of neurological problem. Good to know. He would need to have a discussion later with Coulson about it. 

"Mr. Stark," said Simmons nervously. "Hello."

"Hi," Tony walked up to them. "This is Peter Parker, Spider-Man to some, he's doing a photo reportage on the ship. Now tell me about what you said about the second valve there."

Tony pointed on the holographic engine. 

About two hours later the four of them had constructed a prototype of a machine that would theoretically be able to transform part of Thor's power into a battery. Tony was very excited, and Fitz and Simmons had earned their place on the ship. 

They would not be sharing a room. Another case of best friends apparently, but this time Tony actually believed it. 

It created a problem though. Well, problem and problem. It wasn't really his business, but as the commander of the ship it kind of was. 

As it were, they were now sixteen people aboard. And a dog. And three babies on their way. But sixteen adults, eleven of them identifying male and five as female. No one was showing any signs of wanting to change the numbers, though one should never say never. 

"Sir," interrupted JARVIS. "Agent Barton is requesting permission to land."

"Granted," Tony relaxed without knowing how tense he had been. "What's their status?" 

"They have your contraband, sir. Though Loki sends word that he will be needing to use the Freeze Machine."

"Is he hurt?" Tony immediately tensed up again. 

"He is just in the need of a short rest, sir," 

Which was Loki-speak for 'falling asleep on my feet'. Tony smirked and gave the order to start up the Freeze Machine. He was curious of what they had managed to rescue and what of it was salvageable. 

"Wh-what's a Freeze Machine?" Fitz asked. 

"Hydra used to use it to store the Winter Soldier, Bucky, between assassinations," Tony started to walk out of the room and motioned them to follow him. "They didn't have the full Supersoldier-serum recipe so they had to improvise with chryo-technology to compensate. It used to have some torture-like memory eraser attached to it, but I scrapped that shit."

Actually he had let Bucky beat it to pieces with a sledgehammer. 

They entered the med-bay. Dr. Kingsley, who had been sitting by his desk and wrapping his damaged fingers in gauze looked up. It was hard to see if you weren't used to his heavily bandaged face, but he gave them a kind smile.   
Tony liked Kingsley. He was a medical genius and a good man with a dry sense of humour. The guy was a total loner, though, not because of his burnt disfigurement but because he actually seemed to like it that way. The wrapping and unwrapping of the gauze around his hands and fingers was more or less an subconscious movement when he was deep in thought. 

No one ever called him Rupert. 

Tony made some quick introductions and then showed Fitz, Simmons, and Peter the Freeze Machine. It was placed in an adjacent room to the med-bay since it was more or less a medical tool. 

"No photos," he told Peter. 

Peter nodded and let the camera just hang from his neck in the strap. 

"By a strange coincidence..." continued Tony showing off some of the screens. "...it perfectly replicates the climate on Loki's birth planet. It helps him recuperate faster and rest better." 

Tony smiled fondly. Loki liked to think that he was invincible but Tony knew the guy was more damaged than he let on. He patted the machine. 

"I-is it a really a co-coincidence?" asked Fitz. "The eh... the climate thing?"

"I don't know...." Tony frowned. "I haven't had time to look in to it, and now it seems its none of my business anymore. I'll leave any research I have about Hydra in competent hands when we leave though."

They were interrupted by Loki entering the med-bay. He was gingerly leaning his lower arm on Bucky's metal-arm, that if something spoke volumes of how bad it was. Loki looked totally beat but pulled himself together when he saw the group waiting for him and stepped away from Bucky. 

Fitz and Simmons suddenly became nervous again and grabbed each others hands. 

"How did it go?" asked Tony, hiding his worry by prepping the machine

Loki didn't like to be doted over in public, and Bucky had given him a small shake of his head. Tony had to save it for later, and he had a whole lot of it saved up by now. 

"Our escape didn't go as smoothly as planned, but it'll probably take a while for them to understand what happened." Loki removed his jacket and gave it to Tony. "Your things are in the pockets."

"Thanks, babe."

Loki just glared at him before stepping into the machine and closing it around himself. Tony made a kissy-face in front of the glass that only earned him an eye roll and half a smile. He took what he could get. 

"I thought that he would be scarier," said Simmons now eying Bucky who wasn't looking at the Freeze Machine. 

"He's having a bad day," said Tony as he put on the jacket and felt around in the vast magical pockets. "He'll sure to scare you later. Ah!"

Tony brought out a fist-sized reactor battery from the pocket, it glowed blue in his hand. Even if he did know how to hold it correctly it soon burned his fingers and he had to put it back in the pocket. He noticed Fitz and Simmons excited looks. Peter looked just as impressed. 

Now they really could get down to business.


	6. An idea for the future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki is building shelves and making schemes. Thor helps.

//////

 

"Are you sure about this, Loki?" Thor frowned. 

"No, I'm not."

They were sitting of the sofa in the in the half-finished common room aboard the Heidrun. Loki was holding the small bottle of Idun's potion in his hand. It was a week since he acquired it and he still wasn't certain that he even wanted to use it. It had seemed like a good spontaneous idea at the time. 

It had been a busy week, the press conference had prompted fifteen more teams of heralds to arrive to the top side of the hangar, and a small camp was now set up behind what Anthony called 'the invisible line'. The line was of course a lie, but just the thought that something could be there was so far discouraging enough for curious eyes. How long the ruse would last though was up to anyone's guess. 

Rogers had set up a rotating guard schedule to keep a lookout for intruders. Anthony had offered to hire professional guards but had later decided against it because of the risk of them being more easily bribed. Barnes were not officially on the guard schedule, though he often accompanied the guard on duty. 

The heralds kept a respectable distance but every day there was some new piece of news, or an old one repeated, on the television or on the so called 'online publications'. Some of the Avengers were taking bets on how long the heralds could stand to keep up their desperate vigilance.

Also, as Anthony had pointed out to Loki several times, they were not really called 'heralds' but 'reporters'. Loki didn't actually care, he didn't like them either way. Especially not since they had started spreading false rumours about his bad influence on Anthony. 

For the moment Loki and Thor were alone in the room. The others were milling about the ship somewhere, doing their building, stocking, studying, or nest-building.

Anyone not involved in the construction of the ship had their own tasks to do. Thor's tasks was mostly heavy lifting and the occasional testing of the new generator that would harvest his electrical power. For the moment nobody needed him to do anything, and Jane had thrown him out of the laboratory because he was 'hovering'. 

Among Loki's assigned tasks was to do what Anthony called 'interior design', which was basically putting together shelves with the help of only a strange screwdriver and even more strangely written instructions. It was a demential task for someone of Loki's stature and talents, but he had agreed to it to please Anthony. 

Anyway, he was saving his strength, he would be magically testing out the integrity of a new section of the haul later. 

But now Thor had cornered him and Loki was unable to get away. 

Anthony had, by some strange form of impressively mixed emotional blackmail and invasive chattering, finally made Loki confess to not being able to fully restore his powers, and that teleportation was among the most taxing things he could do. The human could be quite demanding when he put his mind to it, and Loki had promised Anthony not to teleport unless it was for a life or death situation. 

He had considered it with Thor, but had finally relented to his not-brother's demand of conversation. It was long overdue anyway. They had taken a seat on the sofa, leaving the half-finished shelves on the floor. 

Loki had confessed the same things to Thor as he had to Anthony. He had also told him of his detour to Asgard since he felt he had to have someone on his side if everything blew up in his face. Thor was both impressed and worried. 

"The potion will corrupt them," said Thor looking intently at the bottle. "It will take their humanity away from them."

For beings as long lived like Loki and Thor the potion was for good health, not for life. They had only ever taken it as precaution from illness, a vaccine to use Midgard terms, or for faster healing. The thought that it could be used in another way consisted so far only in precautionary tales. 

"Not necessarily," Loki let the bottle play between his fingers before putting it away in a dimensional pocket in midair. "It could also enhance it."

"It will enhance the bad sides as well," Thor looked tempted though. "Think of Tony and the troubles he would face. I revere him greatly for his valour, Loki, but he is a very burdened man."

"That's exactly what I think of all the time. It might work together with this 'Extemis' that they are working on."

"Anthony showed me images of what happened to those who have tried this Exremis," Thor shook his head. "They become like the Fire-giants and then their bodies dispersed. I will not hold my hope to it."

Loki had seen the images as well, they were not encouraging. He would be making his own experiments of course. 

There was not much of the potion. At least not in regard of inaugurating the whole crew. It would just about double a normal human's lifetime. Anthony would never agree to see his friends age and die before him. Like Loki would have to do...

Thor was watching him. 

"Stop it," Loki pulled his hand through his hair in a gesture he to his dismay had subconsciously copied from Anthony. "I'm not trying to make them live to our age. I just want to keep him with me for a bit longer."

"Just him?"

"Fine, them." Loki have an irritated breath. "I am willing to share this with all of them, aren't I?" 

"I'm not arguing against you, Brother," Thor held up his hands. "I feel the same about Jane, the mother of my children, but we must prepare ourselves. We knew from the start when we met them we had to let go."

"You talk like we were your pets," said Banner entering the room. 

Ironically he had his own pet, a dog named Cow, following him on his heals. The name had been a bit confusing at first, but Banner told that it was his own silly mispronouncing of another language's word for 'dog', and the name had just stuck when the dog kept reacting to it. The real word was something like 'kao', but Loki couldn't honestly care less. It was a nice animal though, very loyal. 

Banner seemed only to have heard the very last part of their conversation. Most likely if he knew that Loki was thinking of planning something like this behind their backs, he would have been a bit ,ore green. 

"Don't you do the same with him?" asked Loki indicating dog who was tentatively hiding behind Banner's legs. "Don't you still care for him greatly still?"

"I suppose I do," Banner smiled down at the dog and then back at Loki and Thor. "I'm sorry I sounded so harsh, I know this situation is hard for you."

He held up a small device with a green-lit screen against one of the walls. A series of numbers changed over the display. 

"Anyway, don't let us disturb you. I'm just measuring the radiation protection levels."

"Is there something wrong?" 

"Not wrong, per se," the scientist looked over his device with an irritated frown. "Just something off. Don't worry, it'll come to me."

The idea came to Loki like one of Thor's more powerful lightnings. He could feel his whole insides warm up. The only thing keeping him from calling out with glee was over a thousand years of practice. He sat completely calm and let the amazing scheming thoughts just flow over him. He had missed this feeling so much. Thor obviously noticed. 

"Loki?"

"I know what can help you," said Loki, ignoring Thor, getting to his feet and walking over to Banner. 

"What?" Banner gave him a doubtful look. "Do you know anything about gamma radiation anomalies on larger structures and closed environments?"

"No, but you do," Loki pointed at him. 

Banner blinked. He glanced between Loki and Thor who now had joined them. 

"Do- Do you mean a Moment of Clarity?" he asked. "I thought you weren't going to do those anymore."

"Only because the emotional ones were too frickle," Loki waived his hand dismissively. "Like you finding out the meaning of true looniness, giving emotions to machines, and things as such."

"Yes, that was fun."

"But the first one is intellectual, we know this."

"The first one?" Banner frowned. "Are you sure? You said that after giving the one to Thor you weren't sure if the sequence would start over or not."

"Well, magic is quite unaccountable, but it's also very precise."

Loki was quoting Frigga on this one. His adopted mother had often talked in subtle contradictable truths, especially when she wanted to tech him something. She had irritated him by no end during training, telling him this sentence over and over again. When he finally understood what she meant by it he was already a full-fledged Mage. He certainly didn't expect Banner to understand it. 

"What does that even mean?" Banner predictingly shook his head. 

"That it will start over," said Thor, who most likely also had recognised his mother's words, even if they never had been aimed at him. 

Loki gave them both his best convincing smile, at least the one he hoped was still convincing and not suspicious. Anthony would probably see through it. Thor looked doubtful but wasn't objecting. 

Banner narrowed his mouth in thought. 

"And you will give that to me? What do you want in return?"

"Just the knowledge that what you will do with your Clarity is going protect the ship, and everyone aboard."

Banner looked at Thor again. Thor looked at Loki, then back at Banner, and then he actually shrugged. Loki couldn't help but to give a small smirk. Banner sighed. 

"You know..." he said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes with his wrist before putting them on again. "I could just as well find out the answer for myself. It's apparently in my head after all."

"But who knows how long it would take?" Loki knew he got him hooked now. "Time, to quote a Midgard expression, is a luxury we don't have. It's a big ship, Dr Banner. You are just one man, a man who has a tendency to let frustration take literally the worst of you. Or are you keen on asking the Hulk his opinion on the matter? I doubt 'smash' will be the answer you are looking for"

"You are manipulating me for something," Banner sighed. "But I know you're right... Just promise me... Just promise me that what ever scheme you are up to isn't going to be something bad." 

"I promise," Loki smiled, more honest this time. 

"I have my eye on him," said Thor to Loki's great irritation. 

"Fine," Banner sighed again. "Give it to me then."

Loki nodded and took a breath. He placed his fingers on Banner's temples and spoke the spell. Then he quickly pulled away his hands, rubbing his fingers together to dismiss the feeling of touching someone else's skin. 

"Oh," Banner smiled brightly. "I know what to do! It's so obvious! Thank you. I need to go talk to Tony."

He left in a hurry, the dog Cow following tight on his heals. 

Loki bit his lower lip, Banner was going to tell Anthony how he got the solution. Anthony wasn't going to be happy with Loki using magic when he should be resting. Not that Loki needed rest, his head felt fine and so did his gut. 

"What are you planning?" asked Thor. 

"I'll tell you when I'm ready." 

"No, you tell me now," Thor grabbed hold of Loki's shoulder. "I'm not going to let you play with their lives."

"Let go of me," Loki growled and tensed but didn't move. 

Thor tightened his grip momentarily before letting go. Loki took a step back while sourly massaging his shoulder. It hadn't hurt, and it hadn't been too uncomfortable since it was Thor, but it was still a dirty tactic. 

"Idun's potion will enhance the humans' traits, right?" he started to explain. "The emotional Clarity will give them personal insight. If the potion and Clarity are given at the same time, then the humans will cope with the enhancements better, they will not be as overwhelmed because they will understand why they feel as they do."

"So they won't go insane?" 

"Hopefully it will cancel each other out, and the change will only be marginal with perhaps some more self knowledge," Loki nodded. "But..." He took a breath as he suddenly realised something important. "We can't tell them what we are giving them the potion."

"Why?" Thor frowned. 

"The Clarity will bring out the emotions closest to them, if they know we are using their emotions to prolong their lives..."

"...they will hide some of those emotions without knowing it?" Thor hesitated. "And they won't get the insight the need?"

"Yes, they need to be as true as possible," Loki nodded. "You are smarter than you give the impression to be."

"I have learned from the best, Brother."

"Are you saying I don't give the impression of being smart?" 

Thor's eyes widened in panic, Loki laughed. 

"It's good to know you are still an idiot in some areas," he said. 

"You really are evil," Thor shook his head jokingly, but then turned serious. "I do not like us doing this behind their backs."

"There is really no choice, Thor. Remember what happened the last time a human was given the potion?"

Thor must have remembered since he looked guilty and glanced at Mjolner on the floor. It had been quite a messy affair. 

"How shall we proceed?" he sighed. 

"We need a test subject. Any suggestions?"

Loki had a few ideas of his own, but he didn't want to be accused of something. Also he was not quite willing to volunteer Anthony just yet. 

Also he wasn't sure how the potion would react to Rogers, Barnes, and Banner. Would they even need it? It needed more research. He could offer his assistance to the Exremis project to hide it. He was an accomplishment alchemist, and even if Anthony insisted that alchemy wasn't real science he admitted that it had its usages of 'thinking outside the box'.

He looked back at Thor who looked very conflicted, Loki sighed. 

"If you pardon me for eavesdropping," said JARVIS politely from a speaker above them. "I believe I have some suggestions for candidates for test subject." 

Loki froze, he hadn't thought of JARVIS. The entity had only the day before been wired in through all the ship. There where privacy switches installed in the bedrooms and bathrooms, but here in the common room JARVIS could see and hear everything. 

"I'm not going to tell on you," continued the sentient artificial intelligence. "Your scheme will eventually be in the benefit Mr Stark, and that is one of my prime directives."

"Aren't one of your other prime directives to protect everyone aboard?" asked Loki.

"It is. But my risk calculations are in favour of helping you find a test subject for your project."

Loki smirked. 'Project', that was one name for it. 

"Who do you have in mind?" asked Thor carefully. 

"I would suggest either Dr Fitz or Dr Kingsley."

"Why them?" 

"Because they are in need of Loki's special form of medical treatment, and therefore using them as unsuspecting test subjects will be easy to hide."

Loki was already giving regular treatment to relive the tension in Kingsley's damaged skin, and he had do far only looked over young Fitz who had received a brain damage after an accident involving air deprivation.

"Loki?" It was Anthony's voice which was soon followed by the man himself entering the room. "Are you handing out your magic gifts again?"

He was wearing his usual casual work clothes but his right arm was covered up to his shoulder with red and gold armour. It made him resemble Barnes, and was strangely intriguing. His facial expression was hard to read, somewhere between upset, worried and... excited?

Banner, Fitz and Simmons were following him closely. The three of them were definitely excited. Banner's intellectual insight must really have been something great. 

"It was not a gift," Loki walked to meet him. "It was assistance. Dr. Banner sought a solution to a problem and I provided him with it."

"I don't know if it's a good thing to start that up all over again, babe," Anthony looked conflicted. "Sure, Bruce's idea will probably let us launched about a week earlier, but I don't know if it's safe to stir things up so late in the game."

"It will be fine," Loki patted him on the armoured arm, he knew that Anthony liked that. "I'll be careful."

"You better be," Anthony smiled at him, seemingly calmed by the proxy touch. "I'm doing most of this for you, you know. I suffered through five hours of being yelled at by a senator and not talking back once because of you. I hate to see you screw it all up."

Loki remembered, because Anthony had repeatedly reminded everyone of this fact the last week. Especially after he had taken out his frustration by blowing up some left over parts of helicarrier in the desert. Not even the heralds had dared to go close enough to get a good picture with their long lenses.

"It was you who asked us to bring your things back," Loki shrugged and crossed his arms. "You should have expected the consequences and not blame it all on me. Barton and Barnes where there too."

Anthony was glaring but had a hard time hiding a smirk. 

"Tony?" asked Banner a bit impatiently. 

"Yeah," Anthony sighed. "We're on our way to the lab," he explained. "I just wanted to tell you my concerns first. Don't do anything else until we talk it over as a group."

"Told and noted," smiled Loki. "Now run along, dear, and play with your friends, Thor and I have some important things to discuss."

"Don't feed my kink, babe," Anthony gave him a over the top sultry look before turning away. "You heard the man, fellow geeks and nerds, let's science."

They left in a hurry. Loki's eyes lingered on Fitz. Simmons noticed and looked a bit nervous. 

Loki turned back to the unfinished shelves. Thor stood still, glancing between him and the empty doorway. Loki held out the strange screwdriver. 

"Are you going to help me with this or just stand there and look stupid?"


	7. Sick-day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony takes the day off. Bruce manages to keep calm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bruce POV
> 
> This one and next ate still on Earth, chapter 9 will be the launch.. I'm just now realising how long this fic is going to be. Hope you stay with me :) or at least if you give up now read it when it's finished ;)

Tony had a fever. 

He had ordered everyone, even the three super humans, to get vaccinated with every vaccine there was safe to mix together. Loki and Thor had escaped, but only just barely. Nat and Jane had to forgo some of the vaccines, but sooner or later they would be getting them as well. Tony was not letting anyone set foot on an alien world without a boosted immune system. At least by Earth standards. 

Ironically, he was the only one of the group who had a bad reaction to the injections. 

He had literally been carried away over Steve's shoulder from his tinkering and forced to take at least one day off. It was only under the threat of Loki using a knock-out spell that Tony had finally conceded. That and the dizziness preventing him from focusing on the welding. 

All his technology had been viciously turned off. 

The launch was calculated to three weeks away. Thanks to the Clarity Loki had given Bruce everything had sped up, including Tony. Perhaps that was why they had forced him to take this stupid rest. 

Not that it was helping. 

He was laying on his bed nervously tapping his fingers against the reactor in his chest, thinking about propulsion engines, gravity simulators, and circuit boards. 

"Stop it."

Loki was sitting beside him, his back against the headboard and a book on his lap. Tony had tried to stress the advances of electronic books, if not just for the weight-issue, but one of the extra bedrooms had still somehow turned into a small library. Though admittedly many of the books were old prints that nobody had bothered to digitalise yet. Loki was reading an over two-hundred year old book about human anatomy. 

"What?" 

"Stop making that noise."

"What noise?" asked Tony while innocently tapping a better rhythm with his nails against the reactor in his chest. 

"The noise you won't be making when I remove your fingers from your hands," Loki calmly turned the page of his book. 

Tony stopped tapping. 

A moment later he started patting his stomach like a drum. Loki threw a pillow in his face. 

"What?" Tony threw the pillow back. "I'm bored! And the engines..."

"The engines are as good as they can get in Earth-gravity. There is nothing more you can do until were launched."

"I hate Bruce for explaining it to you."

"I only asked him because you wouldn't tell me that you were working yourself to exhaustion on something that can clearly wait." 

"Nothing can wait," Tony sat up. "We are leaving Earth! Forever! Everything must be perfect and loaded. What if we are halfway to Mars before we notice the oxygen won't circulate? Or we pass Jupiter and we have run out of salt? Nat and Jane are going to give birth onboard, what if something goes wrong and the Med-bay is lacking? Did we buy pacifiers?"

Tony felt his heart speed up. 

"Anthony!" Loki hit him with the pillow again. "Take a breath! You are not the only one who can fix things. Coulson, Rogers and Wilson are taking care of the food. Kingsley and Romanoff are equipping the med-bay. Banner and Jane are helping you with construction. Everyone is doing their part. Trust your friends, and take the day off with me!" 

That made Tony blink. Loki _was_ taking the day off with him. He hadn't realised. In the almost half-year they had been together they had only spent two full days alone together. First time was him taking Loki for a helicopter ride over New York and then dinner at on the Tower roof. Second time was a picnic on his private beach in Malibu. 

But those had more felt like dates. This didn't feel like a date. Tony was sick and Loki was holding him company. This felt like a real relationship. 

Also, this was the first time that Loki actually had something to take the day off from so he could spend it with Tony. 

For the last few weeks Loki had, except from magically testing out the haul and keeping an eye on Nat and Jane, been assisting Simmons with her research on Exremis, and was patiently helping Fitz with his speech- and memory-therapy. 

After a short discussion with the team he had given Fitz a Moment of Clarity, an emotional one. It had been a short discussion since everyone had agreed with Loki's argument that much of Fitz's problems were that he stressed himself out when trying to overcome his damages. Both Bruce and Steve had taken a shine to the boy and had agreed right away. 

Loki had spent several days close to Fitz after the Clarity, so close that Tony almost could feel a sting of jealousy. Even when Loki hadn't been with Fitz he had been talking about him, especially with Simmons and Coulson, finding out every minuscule detail and change they had noted in him. 

For a moment Tony had suspected that Loki was doing some secret nefarious experiment on the boy behind all of their backs. But then he noticed that Thor seemed to be just as interested, though not as obviously diligent, and that was enough to ease Tony's mind. Also, Fitz was showing great improvement, both mentally and in his work. 

Loki still checked in with Fitz every day, but he wasn't as intense anymore. And today he was taking the day off, with Tony. 

Tony sighed as he lay down again and hugged the long body-pillow separating them. 

"What are you reading?" he asked. 

Loki smiled, taking up his book. 

"Old human medical texts are very interesting," he showed Tony a clinical drawing of a dissected arm with lots of small numbers pointing to it. "They are on the edge of new discovery but still desperately tries to tie it to the traditional past... It's very close to Asgardian medicine."

"Read me something."

Tony felt himself relax as Loki read to him from the boring book. He loved falling asleep to the sound of that melodious voice. 

////

Bruce took a few strengthening breaths. It wasn't because he was anywhere close to hulking out, yet, he just needed to collect himself. 

He had been foolish enough to take a walk on the runway to take some measurements with one of the GPS-poles. He had been lost in his own world of calculations and hadn't noticed that the reporters had noticed him, and when he did it was too late. 

"Dr. Banner! Dr Banner!"

"Are you leaving by your own choice?"

"Do you feel that you are too dangerous to stay on Earth?"

"Is it true that if you turn in to the Hulk you'll be thrown out into space?"

"Is it true that Stark is forcing you to have orgies?"

At least six microphones where pressed under his nose. Cow, who had been calmly lumbering on after him gave a small growl. 

Bruce took another breath and patted the dog. 

He looked over his shoulder to Bucky standing a few paces behind him with a neutral look on his face, and then further on to Sam and Clint who were still standing over by the hangar but still within hearing range. The two men where giggling uncontrollably. 

"No comments," said Bruce.

It had been unanimously decided that only Darcy and Phil were allowed to make public statements. Steve was allowed as well but only after a bit of coaching from the other two. 

He tried to concentrate on the GPS again but the reporters and their absurd questions were closing in around him. Suddenly they scattered. Bruce looked around and found that Bucky had come up to him. 

"Let me help you with that," Bucky took over the hold on the pole. 

The man looked like he was ready to use the benign measuring tool to make shish kebab of anyone coming close to him. Bruce gave him a smile. 

"Thanks. I don't know where they get their facts."

"They make them up, of course," said the soldier giving a young female reporter a look that made her almost melt away. "They have nothing better to do out here."

Bruce shook his head and concentrated on the measurements again. He was trying to find the best place for a temporary hangar for the two smaller transport ships that Reed Richards would deliver in a few days. 

They were going to put on some of the new radiation protection technology that Bruce had invented after his Moment of Clarity. Richards was very excited to come work with them on site. He was bringing a improved stove with its own gravity field for the main kitchen as well. 

"Is Kingsley back yet?" Bruce wrote down some results in his notebook. 

"No," Bucky was staring towards the mountains as if something was to descend upon them, though probably he was just staring to brood. 

Kingsley and Phil had gone to get medical supplies. It felt a bit shitty to empty out pharmacies, but they tried to spread it out over as large an area as possible. They were planning a medicinal garden in the greenhouse, but that could take time. Especially since they hadn't really gotten around to plant anything yet, or had any soil delivered. 

Bruce couldn't wait for the launch. Ever since the Hulk had happened he had always felt outside the world. To now be able to actually leave was a great relief for him. The Hulk didn't belong on Earth. 

Also, it titillated his childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut. 

He remembered the hint of jealousy he had felt when Tony first approached him about making the Iron Man suit space-worthy. That was over a year ago, he realised, Tony must have already been working on the ship by then. 

You could still see it on the blueprints, the shape of the bridge, and the areas now used for navigation and environment control. The first version had designed for one person, maybe two or three living in close quarters. Had Tony also been doubting his place in the planet? Or was it just his constant urge to move forward and invent impossible things?

A sudden smatter of cameras made him look up. 

It was Darcy and Natasha coming out from the hangar, seemingly for a bit of air since they stopped to talk to Sam and Clint. Cow ran over to greet them but then returned quickly to Bruce's side. The dog was still very loyal even though Bruce had more or less abandoned him to a life on the streets in Brazil. 

Nat was stroking her belly as she was talking to Clint and ignoring shouts from reporters asking her if she felt that she was putting her child in danger. 

Darcy was walking towards him. She was wearing a short purple dress that complimented her figure, and a rough green denim jacket that complimented her personality. Purple and green, Hulk's colours. Her red lips were smiling at him.

Bruce blushed slightly and turned to direct Bucky to the next spot. 

He was well aware about his feelings for Darcy. But he was still eighteen years her senior, and he had a monster inside him that wouldn't stand for, among other things, the excitement that came with sexual attraction, let alone the act of sex itself. 

The most logical thing would be to try to steer her towards Sam, who was more or less perfect for her, both in age, physicality, and temper. Problem was that Darcy wasn't susceptible to the logic thing. She was a woman with an extraordinarily mind, and that mind was set on Bruce.

What scared Bruce the most was her realising her mistake once he gave in to her charms. What kind of intelligent beautiful woman would like to spend her life with a monster? This wasn't the Beauty and the Beast, and certainly not the Disney version. 

The reporters were very excited to see her though. Almost as a Pavlovian response they associated her with statements and humours banter. 

"How are you doing?" she asked Bruce, pausing by his side. 

"I'm doing good," Bruce glanced up at her. "Are you going to speak to the masses?"

"Yeah," she looked back at Nat who was determinedly walking towards them, Clint was walking next to her holding her hand. "Steve just caught a group of people trying to break in to the compound."

"Hydra?" asked Bucky, his grip on the pole tightening. 

"Extreme activists," said Darcy with a sigh. "They were aiming for one of the ventilation shafts. Apparently their goal was to kidnap Nat to force her to have her baby on Earth."

Bruce felt the Hulk stir inside him. His veins suddenly felt a bit too large for his shirt. Darcy quickly put a gentle hand on his arm, it helped. 

"That's absurd," he breathed. 

"Yeah," laughed Clint bitterly coming up to them. "Not only because of the ridiculous amount of protection surrounding her, but also because Nat is more than capable to defend herself with deathly force despite her condition, probably even more because of it."

"Idiots," agreed Nat. 

He could hear the nonchalance and anger in their voices, but their firm grip on each other's hands told how worried they really were. If anything happened to them or their baby, religious institution or not, the culprits were going to pay. 

"Strangely enough," continued Darcy. "We have received almost no threats against Jane. Maybe since her children isn't going to be fully human they see her as lost."

"Idiots," said Nat again. 

Bruce gave her a hug, she leaned in to him. Clint patted his back. Again there was a smatter of cameras. 

"Let's get shit this over with," said Darcy adjusting her jacket. 

She looked very attractive doing that. Bad timing, Bruce. He shook his head, put the GPS pole over his shoulder, and walked back to the hangar, Cow following him closely. 

Bucky stayed behind to look protective. It would hopefully look very deterrent in the photos. Bruce would have stayed as well but didn't trust his temper to stand around and listen to any stupid follow-up questions the reporters were bound to have. Anyway, he was finished with his survey, and needed to hand over instructions to the robots in how to build the temporary hangars. 

He passed Sam, still standing guard, on the way inside. 

"As we didn't have enough troubles, eh?" he noted bitterly. 

"They are so damn lucky that it was Steve who caught them," Sam shook his head. 

"I know," Bruce continued walking towards the elevator.

Hulk wouldn't have been kind to them. Though then again, Bruce doubted that Steve was anywhere near his usual 'kind' under the circumstances. Actually, Bruce almost felt bad for those extremists, almost.

Down on the work floor he was momentarily confused that Tony wasn't working before he remembered that they had had that intervention and forced the man to take the day off. 

There were plenty of robots and machines around working on and around the ship though. Tony was only bringing his three favourite bots, Dummy, You, and Butterfingers. The rest his little mechanical wonders would be handed over to Potts' or Richards' care. 

"Bruce!" 

It was Jane. At almost five months pregnant with twins her belly led her way like a perky basketball under her shirt. She tired easily but preferred to move around as freely as she could for as long as possible. She was carrying a large pile of papers but was holding up a StarkPad for Bruce to see. 

"I think I plotted a good course past Mars," she exclaimed as she patted Cow who had ran up to greet her. "According to my calculations we will probably be able to see a sandstorm up close. Do you think Tony will let me send out one of his probes? Or shall I just make one of my own?" She frowned and looked at her papers. "I'm just going to make my own."

Bruce smiled. If he had had dreams of becoming an astronaut as a child it was nothing compared to what Jane had dreamed about. She was already making a sketch of a probe using her belly as support for the paper. 

Tony had negotiated some expert advice, and bit of equipment, from NASA in exchange for scientific images and readings. As long they were inside the solar system they would be able to send back information to Earth in reasonable time frames. Outside the solar system there was only information on need-to-know basis, and longer relay times. 

"Did you hear about Nat?" he asked. 

"Yeah," she looked up at him with a slightly disgusted face. "Shitheads. Thor has gone to speak to them."

Both Captain America and Thor? Bruce smirked, the intruders were really going to be in for it now.

"You haven't been bothered like that?" he asked. 

"JARVIS screens my messages," Jane shrugged. "There are plenty of people out there that wants to dissect me though, having confirmed aliens in my belly and all..." She frowned. "Shit, my back is killing me." 

They walked over to a workbench by the wall to have a seat and take the strain of Jane's back and calves. They talked a bit about Mars and how they wanted to look closer at the other planets as well as they would pass them. 

Both of them where going to be busy doing their best to their abilities to assist Tony with the rebuilding of the engines, but that wasn't going to stop them from primarily being physicists. Bruce was also going to take over some of Jane's tasks while she took a bit of maternity leave. 

They looked up as the elevator doors opened and Darcy, Natasha and Clint stepped out. They looked a bit sour and tired. 

Clint and Nat just nodded and continued to the builders' lift that Tony finally had installed to get up to the ship's docking bay. Darcy patted Clint's shoulder and walked to join Bruce and Jane in the bench. 

"I think the crisis is averted," she sighed, pulling off her jacket and dropping it on the floor. "Clint only reacted a bit when someone asked if he was sure the child was his."

"What?" Bruce fought down a bit of anger that threatened to take over, both Darcy and Jane stroked his arms. "Why?"

"You know how it is," Darcy said in a mocking tone. "One girl, five guys, millions of rumour mills..."

"No, I don't know," Bruce got up and started pacing, Cow sat up to observe him curiously. "I can't wait to get out if this place."

"Dr. Banner?" interrupted JARVIS. "There is a minor medical emergency, are you fit to look into it?"

"Yes, of course," Bruce adjusted his glasses. "What has happened?"

"Dr Fitz has accidentally cut himself on a fan blade and require stitches. Since Dr Kingsley has yet to return..."

"Tell him to go the med-bay, I'm on my way." 

/////

Tony woke up more well rested than he had felt in weeks. He smiled as he noticed Loki sleeping beside him. He wanted to reach out and brush a lock of black hair of the pale forehead, but restrained himself. 

Instead he gently lifted the old book off Loki's chest and put it on the nightstand. For a brief moment he just watched his boyfriend breathe. Then he got up to look at his phone. 

There was a few new news stories up on his timeline. _'Has the Winter Soldier tamed the Beast?'. 'Captain America saves pregnant ex-girlfriend's child'. 'Jealousy in Underground Paradise?'. 'Rumours about orgies still not confirmed'._

Couldn't Tony even take a simple sick-day without things falling apart? 

Also, who was having orgies? And why hadn't Tony been invited to at least watch?


	8. Tony is Tony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last day before the launch and Tony is up to old trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found this [picture](https://www.flickr.com/photos/53907627@N08/8580454383) while searching for references for a Heidrun drawing and decided I didn't need to draw anything since this is close enough to my vision to be accurate (and much better than I do ever could do it). Just imagine some Livithan plating around the front :)

"You don't need to," said Dr Richards. "I'm just happy to be of service."

"Please," Loki smiled kindly. "I insist. It was only because you agreed to stay on for an extra week that we could convince Anthony to go back to New York to say a proper farewell to his friends. I have had word from Potts and she says that he is much better for it. This gift is only for expressing my gratitude."

Richards had been very helpful. Anthony was a genius, but sometimes even a genius needed his work looked over by another genius when the first genius wasn't around. At least that was what Banner said. Loki supposed that he had to agree with that even though he had missed having the silly human around. 

At first Loki had found Richards unsettling since it was impossible to know where anyone of his stretched limbs would show up. Loki had walked into an arm once and managed to tangle himself up in it as he panicked. Richards had thankfully kept calm and thereby saved himself from getting a severe frostbite. 

Loki had learned to look where he was going after that, and Richards where he was stretching. 

"Very well," Richards took a step forward, while relaxed he was just about as tall as Loki. 

It had been several weeks since Loki had given Fitz the potion and Clarity. It had been a good experiment. The biggest changes in the young man had been an increased self-confidence and a far better healing flesh. The severe cut he had received a few weeks ago was already perfectly healed, to the great mystery of Banner and Kingsley who both had thought that the hand had been permanently damaged. 

Though the best thing was of course that the boy was showing no signs of becoming a crazed megalomaniac. It seemed, at least based on one person, that the combination was working. 

The launch was just one day away and Loki was now confident to move to his next subject, and to do that he needed to get the intellectual Clarity out of the way. The best way to do that without suspicion was to give it to Richards, and in front of witnesses. 

They were standing so called 'topside', inside the temporary hangar surrounding the two smaller ships that Richards had brought with him when he arrived. His wife had apparently flown one of them but Loki hadn't seen her or noticed when she she left. 

The two ships were large enough to carry twenty people, that is if the twenty people were stacked very very tightly, very friendly with each other, and not all the size of Thor and Rogers. Loki was not going to be aboard in that unlikely scenario. 

In Tony's absence they had named the ships Tanngnjost and Tanngrisner after _Thor's_ favourite goats. Loki had been tired of being teased about Heidrun and named the smaller ships to remind everyone that Thor had had goats as pets as well, even though he tried covering it up by making them pull his chariot. 

Thor hadn't liked the naming. Loki did, but he doubted that Anthony would ever remember them and was quite curious on what the abbreviations would become. Probably something very silly, as Anthony was the worst at coming up with names. 

Loki touched Richards' grey-haired temples and stepped back. 

Richards eyes widened almost to comical proportions, it was one of the most bizarre things Loki had ever seen, and he had some bizarre things in his days. 

"Oh," Richards breathed. "Why didn't I see that before?"

"What?" asked Barton. 

"I finally know how I can pull a great prank on my brother-in-law!"

Loki frowned. Sure, on one hand he was pleased that someone was going to be pranked, he used to live for that sort of thing once, but on the other hand he was worried that it was an insufficient gift. 

"Is that good?" he asked hesitantly. 

"You don't know Johnny," said Barton. "If anything can come back and bite him in the ass it's good."

Loki nodded. He didn't understand, but guessed that it meant that Richards was pleased. 

At the mention of his brother-in-laws name Richards shook his head like the father of an adored mischievous child, like Frigga had done with Loki, and Odin never had. Loki felt a sting of jealousy at the look. He looked away. 

"Tony's back," Hill touched the device in her ear. "Cap says he brought a bus-load of people with him. It must be the ground crew... He's talking to the reporters."

"Great," said Barton without enthusiasm. 

"Ugh," Romanoff touched her stomach. "I need to sit down. Pumpkin is misbehaving."

"Let's go inside the ship," Richards gestured towards Tanngnjost. "You can sit down and we can watch what Tony is up to."

Loki really wanted to go outside to greet Anthony, but recognised his duties as a carer and reluctantly followed the others inside the ship. Anyway, Anthony would come to find him eventually. 

Tanngnjost was loaded with several boxes and crates, as was the other ship. The plan was to launch the smaller ships first to save weight on the much larger Heidrun. The small ships was then to dock in space and any cargo carried over. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. 

Romanoff took a relived breath as she sat down on the pilot seat and her belly could rest on her thighs.

"Don't look at me like that," she told Barton who seemingly hadn't looked at her at all. "I can do it,"

"I'm not doubting you," Barton gave an embarrassed laugh. 

Barton and Romanoff were piloting the smaller ships. It had needed some debating, but ultimately it had been decided that Hill was better placed aboard Heidrun with Wilson as co-pilot. Nobody doubted Romanoff's capabilities, it was just that she was surrounded by very protective people that cared for her very much. 

Hill turned on one of the screens and found a live news program showing Anthony. 

"Why is he wearing sunglasses?" Barton shook his head. "Don't tell me he's hungover."

Romanoff huffed. 

"You are Tony Stark on your second to last night on Earth and in New York, what are you going to do?"

Loki could imagine, but he didn't want to. It didn't feel good doing so. 

_"...you can't bother me anymore because I'm going to live in space now,"_ Anthony was saying on the screen. _Me and my totally understanding and gorgeous blue alien boyfriend will live in space and..."_

 _"Excuse me, Mr Stark,"_ Darcy grabbed hold of his arm. _"But Captain Rogers really wants to talk to the press now."_

 _"I do?"_ asked Rogers' voice before the image rapidly turned to him. _"I do!"_

Rogers heroically stepped forward as Anthony was pulled back. The heralds were shouting questions. 

"Oh my god," Hill shook her head. "He's still drunk."

"No," said Romanoff, narrowing her eyes. "I know this one, he's not _still_ drunk. He's hungover and drunk _again_."

"Worse," Barton shook his head. "That means he did something really bad or upsetting while being drunk the first time around. What do you think? Loki?"

Loki wasn't thinking, he was seething. 

"He called me blue."

"Oh," Barton strategically placed himself between Loki and Romanoff. "He also called you 'very understanding and gorgeous', remember that."

 _"...ground control will be supervised by Colonel James Rhodes..."_ said Rogers on the screen. 

Loki took a deep breath. He was angry that Anthony had called him blue in front of the heralds, but he also knew that Anthony must be depressed after saying his last farewell to Potts and Hogan. The drunkenness was probably an attempt to take away the edge of it. 

That was worrying in its own right. What characteristics was the potion going to enhance in the man? And would the emotional Moment of Clarity be enough to counteract it? Fitz' self-confidence had been quite low from the start, if Anthony's self-confidence grew, even a small amount, they could all be in trouble. Also, Anthony's mind was more precious to Loki than anything. 

But for the moment Anthony was not in Loki's good graces. 

"Excuse me," said as he left the ship. 

He heard Richards whispering a question to Hill, probably about why Loki was upset about the blue-comment. Loki ignored it but he noticed that Barton was following him, if it was of curiosity or on someone's request wasn't clear. Loki didn't really care. 

He exited the temporary hangars and headed towards the main building, to were Darcy had steered Anthony. 

There were shouts from the heralds. First of surprise, then jumbled together questions, then some of warning, and of surprise again. Loki turned to look. 

One of the heralds, a young man, had obviously taken his enthusiasm and too far and clearly stepped over 'the invisible line'. The other heralds were just realising what was happening. Rogers looked like he was doing some breath exercises thought to him by Banner. 

"Oh shit," said Barton. 

The heralds were storming forward like rabid beasts, their microphones and arrays of cameras like battle axes, and their screams calling loudly on variations of Loki's and Barton's names followed by questions. The most often used words were 'drunk', 'baby', and 'blue'.

Loki simply raised his hand and created a magical barrier. The sounds of the humans and their equipment crashing into it was very satisfying. It was totally worth the sting of pain going through Loki's forehead. He let the wall fall as he kept on walking. He was inside before the shouting started again. 

"That was awesome," noted Barton as they entered the elevator. "But you are lucky we are leaving tomorrow cause they are going to have a fit."

"They are going to bee too busy with the launch to make a big deal of it." 

"I feel bad for Cap," Barton grinned. 

Loki watched as the hanger and the finished ship became visible through the glass wall of the elevator. It was really a great ship worthy of praise even from species that already mastered intergalactic travel. Anthony had painted it red and gold, silly pretentious human. 

And so complex... 

Loki glanced at Barton.

"What?" said the archer, or course noticing Loki's every move. 

"Just thinking..."

"Scheming, you mean?" Barton huffed a the elevator doors opened up. 

Yes, Loki thought, sadly, yes. Barton needed to be the next test subject. He was the one in the group most mentally similar to Anthony. He wasn't a genius, but he wasn't stupid either. And he was complex. 

Kingsley really was a simple man underneath the deformed burnt skin. He was a man who found his pleasure in solitary research and patient contemplation. He enjoyed watching things slowly grow, like healing injuries and plants. The doctor couldn't really compare to Anthony. 

And Simmons... Loki really wanted to save her until it was Jane's turn. 

The problem was to convince Barton to let Loki give him a drink and then let him into his head. That was certainly going to be an easy task. 

They took the lifter up to the docking door. JARVIS directed them to the main kitchen where Darcy was making Anthony drink some water while waiting for the coffee machine. Hill and Banner were there as well, judging from the things on the table they seemed to have been discussing tomorrow's launch over a light meal. 

Anthony didn't greet Loki with a happy 'babe!', it was more disconcerting than Loki wanted to admit. There was a sad smile though. Loki felt for him. Saying farewell to your best friends couldn't have been easy. The alcohol consumption was evidence enough. 

He took a breath and leaned down to give Anthony's right cheek a quick kiss, he could feel the evidence of a sloppy shave on his lips. It was uncomfortable but felt like the right thing to do to show that he cared. Anthony gasped, placing his fingers on his cheek. 

"What was that for?" 

"Cheering you up," Loki looked down at Anthony's red-rimmed eyes that radiated more guilt than surprise. "Not sure if it worked though."

"No, no," Anthony shook his head, scratching his cheek as he tried to peel Loki's good effort off. "It worked, it worked... I'm..."

"What did you do?" asked Banner, his voice stern. 

"I didn't do anything!" He gripped the cup of coffee that Darcy had placed in front of him but pulled away his hands as it was too hot. "Ow, fuck! All right, fine, fine... I might have... gone to some bars... Might've...." his voice trailed off before taking a fortifying breath. "Might have talked to... some girls..."

"Tony!" shouted Banner.

"Stark!" shouted Hill. 

Darcy and Barton looked disappointing. Loki took a breath. 

"I didn't have sex with any of them!" Anthony protested. "I just talked to them!"

"'Flirted', you mean," Darcy sighed. "You got drunk and flirted with a bunch of girls in a bar."

"Hey! I'm Tony Stark, that's what I do!"

"That's what you _did_ , Tony," said Barton sounding very indignant. "You have a boyfriend now."

Loki just stared at Barton, it almost felt like an outer body experience. Had the archer just stood up for him? Barton noticed him looking. 

"It doesn't mean we are friends," he said, crossing his arms and looking away. "It's just common decency." 

Loki smirked and exchanged a humours look with Darcy, but then turned back to Anthony who was looking miserable with his water and coffee. 

"Anthony, I'm not angry with you," Loki sighed. "I know you have needs that I can't fulfil, I wouldn't have minded..."

"Shut up," Anthony angrily looked up at him, his eyes were a bit unsteady but they were still honest. "You fulfil my needs just fine."

Loki doubted that but didn't protest. 

"And you would absolutely have minded," continued Anthony. "But you wouldn't have shown it. You would had gotten on your fucking high horses and held it over me until I got down on my knees and begged you forgiveness. And even then you wouldn't grant me it."

"You know me too well, mortal," laughed Loki and sat down. 

"Oh, so I'm 'mortal' now?" 

"You flirted with bar-women," Loki rolled his eyes. "And you called me 'blue'. I could call you much worse. Drink your beverages."

"I love you."

"Be grateful that I let you."

He wasn't finished in berating Anthony, but it could wait until they were alone. By the ashamed look Anthony had on his face he knew it at well. 

Barton coughed as he too got himself a coffee and sat down. 

"Well, this turned from ugly to awkward to scary," he shivered. "By the way you should know the Invisible Line has fallen. Reporters on the edge of desperation will most likely sneak inside and, if not kill us, but definitely interview and photograph us in our beds."

"What the hell?" Darcy gave a frustrated sigh and started looking through her phone with increasing panic in her eyes. "One day left, less than one day! Why me? Fuck! Loki did you cast a spell on the reporters?" 

"Not _on_ them," Loki leaned back. 

"Why me?" moaned Darcy and hurried away, almost crashing into Wilson at the door, the sound of her hard heals against the metal floor following her. 

"Emergency?" asked Wilson pointing after her.

"It's fine," said Hill with a sigh as she got up and took we dishes to the dishwasher. "Are you finished filing the flight plan?"

"JARVIS is," shrugged Wilson making his way to the coffee machine. 

"Let's go look it over," she said. 

"Don't you trust my equipment?" asked Anthony in mock-offence. 

"After what happened in Washington I don't trust anything," said Hill and motioned Wilson to follow her out. 

He followed with a shrug and a smile, leaving the four men alone in the kitchen. Banner continued eating. 

Loki was looking at Barton again. Yes, he was a bit upset with Anthony at the moment but that didn't change that there was an experiment to run. The fact that Barton had indirectly confessed that he liked Loki more than he let on was a bit problematic. Loki had a conscience despite thoughts, some of them his own thoughts, to the contrary.

"What?" asked Barton. 

"If you are not too opposed," Loki took on a superior air and indicated towards Anthony. "I would join you in Tanngrisner tomorrow."

"I don't know..." Barton blinked. 

"I guess I could ask Romanoff if I could go with her..." Loki sighed, knowing very well that even if Barton kind of liked him he would never let Loki be alone with his wife and unborn child in a closed off ship for several hours. 

"No, you can come with me," he growled. 

"What's a tanned greaser?" asked Anthony. 

" _Tanngrisner_ ," corrected Loki. "It's one of Richards' ships. I'm going up in it with Barton."

Anthony's eyes widened. 

"You're not going to to watch my first time being a cool commander of a starship?"

"No."

Loki crossed his arms and leaned back. Anthony looked genuinely sad, served him right. Both Banner and Barton hid their smiles, confirming Loki's righteousness. 

This would work in two ways, it would punish Anthony and Loki would have opportunity to convince Barton to take the Moment of Clarity.

"Stupid name," pouted Anthony. "What does it mean?"

"'One Who Has Gaps Between His Theeth'."

"Lovely." 

"Blame Thor," Loki shrugged. "His imagination naming things is even worse than yours. The other ship is called Tanngnorst, it means 'One Who Grinds His Teeth'."

"Awesome," Barton was already texting Romanoff. 

"The man's a poet," Banner shook his head. "I'm going to tell Jane not to let him name the kids."

"I'm going to call them Grease and Grinder," said Anthony swallowing down the last of his water. 

"Of course you are," Loki smiled, he couldn't help it. 

Anthony smiled, the fool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The translation of Thor's goats' names are quite accurate, trust me I'm Swedish.


	9. Launching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally it's time to launch. Tony is reminded of a TV-show and Clint finds new sides to an old enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven minutes to midnight. Still updating on Sundays!
> 
> Also reminder of Tony's nicknames for the smaller ships:  
> Tanngrisner = Greaser. Tanngnorst = Grinder

\---------

 

The night had been miserable. Tony had missed Loki beside him. The tortuous god had decided to sleep in one of the extra rooms. 'So that you won't wake me as you need to get up earlier than me', he had said. Tony knew better, he was being punished. 

Also, everyone had the same alarm today. 

There had been pictures on the media-outlets. 'Tony Stark's farewell-tour' some had called it. Some of the women interviewed had grossly exaggerated what had been going down. Thankfully, none of Tony's friends had believed the reports. 

He wasn't regretting telling Loki about flirting with the women at the bar, partly cause he knew it all would come out, but mostly because lying was the worst thing that he could do. Tony knew that from bitter experience, so did his face. He was too pretty to have his nose broken again. 

Also, he hadn't been entirely to blame, the women had flirted with him as well. Some of them quite aggressively, as if he would bring them with them if they tried really hard enough. Or as if it was the very last chance of having his baby and then later sue the Stark estate, which it was. Tony had not fallen for it, and he was quite proud of that. 

However, he was regretting not doing better apologising to Loki. He had admittedly been drunk in the kitchen, but still. 

Now it was the day of the launch and Loki wouldn't even be there to see Tony's finest moment. Well, one of his finest moment moments, he had had a quite a few in his days. Though this would be his last finest moment on Earth, and that sounded much more creepier than intended. 

"Tony! Please!"

Tony looked up at Steve standing in front of the mirror, shaving, dressed only in a pair of grey sweatpants. They were in one of the communal showers, Tony had just stepped out of one of the booths with one towel over his shoulders to hide the scaring around the arc-reactor, and one towel rubbing his hair.

"You were in the freaking army," Tony huffed and wrapped the towel around his bare waist. "You should be used to naked guys walking around."

"Your impressions of army life are very selective," Steve shook his head and continued to drag the razor-knife across his face. 

Tony tried not to make comparisons between himself and Steve in the mirror. The guy was solid muscle. Tony wasn't too bad himself, but he was pushing forty-five and had to work a little extra to keep up the physique. It wasn't fair to think that Steve was pushing ninety-five. 

"Exited?" he asked, distracting himself.

Steve had spent the night keeping reporters out before the actual military arrived to make sure that the Avengers actually was leaving, there had been a few close calls with intruders but nothing serious enough to close anything down or delay the launch due to safety. 

"Kind of," he smiled. "Mostly relived though. No more public speaking."

"Don't count out the aliens, Cap. I'm sure there are creatures out there who would love some moral patriotic boosting."

"When we leave Earth, Tony, we'll be aliens as well."

"Deep, dude, deep," Tony faked reverence. 

Next moment Bucky stepped out of another shower booth. He was completely naked, no towel in sight. Tony wasn't making any comparisons now either, but if he was they would be about equally matched, which was honestly speaking a bit of a boost to his confidence. 

"Damn it, Buck!" sighed Steve. 

"What?" the soldier frowned. 

Tony laughed. 

"Sir," said JARVIS. "You are wanted on the bridge."

"Of course they want me, I'm the commander," Tony flipped up his shoulder-towel to a cool collar. "See you later Cheif Security Officer Barnes and Health and Safety Officer Rogers."

"Is it all right if I keep going by just 'Cap'?"

"Fine, but you owe me," winked Tony. 

"I'm not letting you go around naked!" called Steve after him. "And Buck, put your pants on!"

"Private joke," Tony told Bruce who he passed walking back to his room, smirking at the double meaning. 

"I don't want to know," he said. 

Tony dressed in his Iron Man under-suit, it reminded him of Star Trek and would also be convenient if he needed to suit up and make any emergency repairs. He noticed that Loki had been in the room and left while he was in the shower, sneaky bastard. 

"JARVIS, countdowns?" he asked as he left the room. 

"Heidrun one hour, fifty-eight minutes; Tanngrisner, one hour, twenty-three minutes; Tanngnorst, fifty-nine minutes."

"Are you exited?" Tony stepped into the elevators hat would take him from the living quarters to the bridge. 

"Practically wetting myself, sir," answered the AI in his perfect neutral tone. 

"O-key, good to know." 

It was beginning to get harder to distinguish between the changes of personality that Tony originally programmed into the AI, the personality JARVIS himself developed over time, and what came after Loki bestowed the two Clarities on the machine. Tony would really like to have a look at the source code, but he guessed that much of it wasn't going to be visible in the numbers. 

Talk about the ghost in the machine.

Only Hill and Sam were on the bridge at the moment. They were sitting in their assigned pilot seats in front of the big screen, which was currently depicting the top-side and the preparations on Greaser and Grinder. 

Tony had tried not to make the room look too much like Star Trek, but who was he kidding? Not Hill and Sam who eyed his under-suit with scepticism. Tony ignored them. It wasn't his fault that Star Trek was such a prophetic show. 

Anyway they should talk, Hill was in her former SHEILD uniform and Sam had his Falcon-suit, sans wings, on. Tony clearly wasn't the only one who wanted to feel a bit like 'space' today. 

"Is that Butterfingers holding the camera?" he asked. "It's rather good. Has he been practicing?"

"He has, sir," answered JARVIS proudly. 

The large screen showed Nat, dressed in a black cat-suit that stretched out over her five-month belly. Except for some slight natural swelling the rest of her body wasn't affected by the pregnancy, a combination of luck, exercise, and good genes. Clint was fitting her with a headset but it wasn't set up for sound yet, most likely they had some private things to say to each other first. 

Thor was loading a few of Jane's measuring instruments into the ship. Jane herself was sitting on the landing directing him. She was wearing a baby-protective cat-suit as well but had converted it with a large knitted sweater that hung halfway down her thighs. Tony didn't wan to call her 'cute' but she was. 

Jane had long debated if she was launching with the first ship to leave or stay aboard Heidrun where all the good equipment was. Her sense of adventure had won over science but that didn't stop her from bringing a few tools. 

Thor wasn't going in the Grinder. Jane had debated long enough so that it was too late to shift cargo and recalculate weight versus fuel versus trajectory. Not really, Tony smirked to himself, he could have made it but clearly Jane didn't want to be distracted. 

Loki stepped forward to do a last health-check on the women and their unborn. Tony felt a bit jealous when Loki gently touched them. He knew it wasn't pleasurable for either of them, especially when judging by their faces, but still. 

Everything seemed fine though. Especially Loki, noted Tony with interest. He had his Asgardian armour on, thankfully without the stupid helmet.

"Stark!" Hill snapped. 

"Yes, ma'am," Tony twitched into work-mode. 

They went through the safety-lists, checked radio and communications with the ships and ground control, and secured satellite contact. Heidrun hummed like a giant satisfied cat. It was a sound that they were going to get used to, though it would quiet down slightly when they reached zero gravity. 

Bruce, Coulson, and FitzSimmons joined them on the bridge to watch the proceedings, they all looked very exited and Tony couldn't blame them. 

Five minutes to launch Nat and Jane hugged their respective men and entered the Grinder. The image on the large screen shifted from Butterfinger's outside view to the internal camera over the cockpit. 

It wasn't going to be that spectacular, the ship would take off like a normal quinjet but then continue straight upwards. They would set orbit at about three hundred kilometres and wait for Heidrun to come pick them up. The whole process would take about five to six hours, at least by Tony calculations. 

Tony listened to the chatter from ground control, Rhodey's and Richards' voices being the most distinctive. He felt sad but still very happy and determined. It was a strange flush of emotions. 

He glanced to one of the smaller screens where Butterfingers was filming the Greaser preparations. Though there were nothing being prepared at the moment. Clint and Loki was watching the Grinder. Tony wished he could run out there and change places with Clint. 

Damn his responsible nature. 

.....

Clint stood still at a safe distance and looked up as Nat steered her ship towards the atmosphere. He wasn't worried but it didn't feel good. It would be the longest time they had been apart since they returned from the Hydra-thing. 

That shit-storm had been a catastrophe and a half. The SHEILD training facility that had supposed to be Clint's recovery from Loki had suddenly become a battlefield and Clint was yet again the reluctant leader of an army. There was a reason he preferred to be the lowest ranked Avenger, people! 

Clint sighed. 

He glanced to Loki who mostly looked bored with the world. Clint couldn't believe he was stuck with this guy again. He couldn't even blame Tony for not being able to keep it in his pants because that was exactly what the stupid prat did. 

"Twenty-three minutes, Mr Barton," said JARVIS in Clint's headset. 

"Roger," breathed Clint and cast a last look to the sky were the white cloud of exhaust from Nat's ship was slowly evaporating. 

Thor was still standing on the tarmac, lightly swinging his hammer from side to side as if he was considering really swinging it and following the ship into space. Clint wondered how long Thor could survive out there. 

As he had it explained to him, the hammer in motion would create enough magic protection for several hours of travel, but if Thor got trapped out there motionless or just falling the pressure would kill him within the hour. Not even gods could compete with the nature of space. 

He remembered hearing about Loki falling from the rainbow bridge, he didn't really want to know how he had survived. It had been hard enough being around him after the fact. 

"Brother," called Loki. "Go inside. You are making a fool out of yourself."

Thor nodded and turned. To Clint's surprise he didn't go directly to the hangar but paused to place his heavy hand on Clint's shoulder. 

"You are a brave man, my friend. I admire your dedication, your honesty, and the love and care you show to those around you. You will be a worthy and good father to your child."

"Don't lay it on too much," Loki rolled his eyes but Thor seemed to ignore him. 

"Remember this," Thor looked Clint sharply in the eyes. 

"Eh... Thanks?" Clint hesitated. 

Thor gave a resolute nod and let him go, he only gave Loki a pat on the arm before moving on. Loki brushed it off. 

"What was that all about?" frowned Clint. 

"Asgardian blessing," said Loki with a shrug. "Though not bad things to take to heart."

His tone was too flippant for Clint to totally believe him, but he decided not to pursue it. Whatever it was it was going to be cleared up soon enough. As it where, it didn't seem to be anything that would disturb the launch. 

He watched Loki turn to the robot with the video camera, he couldn't see what kind of look Loki gave it but it was most certainly directed at Tony on the other side. The robot beeped as if it felt a bit embarrassed. 

Loki was holding a brick-sized wooden box in his hand. Clint wasn't sure were it came from, probably magic. Anyway, it was quite a pretty box, masterfully carved with intricate patterns. Clint was immediately curious. 

"Just a snack," said Loki noticing him looking. "It's going to be a long day."

"Whatever," Clint rolled his eyes to hide his curiosity. 

They had been given two small meals each to bring on the ship, so bringing a snack seemed a little redundant. Unless it was candy of some kind. Clint wished he would have thought of that, now he wanted candy. Chocolate preferably. He noticed Loki's smirk. Bastard. 

Clint frowned, turned away, and walked aboard the Tanngnorst. He heard Loki following. 

Inside the ship Clint began to go through the checklist. As explained before it wasn't too different from a quinjet, but since this was going into space Clint had decided not to rely too much on his experience. Against his better judgment it actually felt a bit safer having Loki aboard, if anything went wrong the wizard could probably patch it up. 

The thought gave him a bit of a bad conscience since he had denied Nat that kind of protection. On the other hand Loki and Nat alone together was a recipe for disaster. If they didn't kill each other then they would probably team up to become space pirates. Clint didn't want his child to grow up to be a space pirate, sure it sounded cool, but there probably was a lot of bad stuff attached to it too. 

Loki sat in the co-pilot seat doing nothing, just as he had been told. He had his box on his knee, hands gently folded over it, and was watching one of the smaller screens. Clint smirked, the screen was showing an excellent view of the Heidrun bridge and of Tony walking around on it. 

"I take it you have forgiven him then?" said Clint. 

"Anthony is Anthony," Loki shrugged. "It's in his very nature to be flirty. He flirts with everyone, even with you sometimes. He also flirts with Romanoff, are you jealous about that?"

"Not at all, I know it's just friendly banter," Clint shrugged. "But those women at the bar were strangers."

"Other people doesn't stop being attractive just because we are in relationships. For instance, I find Sergeant Barnes very aesthetically appealing, and I'm not going to look away from him even if I'm with Anthony. It's just as you find Darcy attractive and Romanoff lets you."

Clint tried not to blush. He knew he wasn't always discreet in watching Darcy, and he knew she didn't mind since they were friends and she knew she was safe with him, but he had never connected it to Nat noticing. Which actually was the most ludicrous thought ever, of course she noticed. 

"Anthony passed our look-but-not-touch rule by flirting with those women, though," Loki continued as he watched Tony on the screen. "Yes, he was drunk, but it's no excuse, and he needs to be punished. That's why I'm here and not there."

"Damn," Clint shook his head. "I'm actually going to sympathise with you. What's wrong with the world?"

"Good thing we are leaving it then."

Loki opened his box and took out something looking like chocolate-covered fudge. It smelled heavenly. Clint tried to concentrate on the countdown that now showed less than two minutes. Rhodes' voice was speaking repetitive instructions in his headset. 

Loki bit into the chocolate, it crunched. The fudge looked white and seemed both chewy and creamy while dotted with vanilla and even more chocolate. Loki made an appreciative noise that would have tightened Tony's pants considerably. 

"Can I try one of those?" Clint asked. 

"These are very high-class Vanheim treats handmade by the finest elf-confectioners," said Loki as he swallowed down with a content smile on his lips. "They would be insultingly wasted on a mere human who doesn't even have the emotional capability to appreciate them."

Clint was about to do some heavy protesting spiced with explicits but was interrupted by the countdown to launch starting to count down from twenty. 

He tried to ignore as Loki took another one of his stupid fancy-pants candies and bite into it. The fucking bastard was clearly doing it on purpose! 

And to think that Clint had actually started to like him!

......

Tony knew that Loki was watching him though the monitors because Tony was watching Loki in the same way. He couldn't hear anything but he didn't need to, looking was enough. Especially when Loki had started eating some kind of candy and clearly had been teasing Clint about it. 

Tony couldn't decide what was more endearing. 

"Stark!" Hill snapped again. "Concentrate or I'll turn that off and slap you!"

"Jane is sending her first images," reported Coulson. "Everything's seems fine."

Tony twitched and turned back to his monitoring of the three ships, the stuff Jane was sending him was indeed cool. Bruce gave him an amused look. 

The rest of the crew had joined them on the bridge as well, even Kingsley. Those without tasks were standing back not to be in the way of those working. 

"Thirty minutes and counting," announced JARVIS. 

"Open up the top!" called Tony. 

The machinery operating the roof of the underground hangar cogged into life. Nothing could be heard directly inside the ship over the humming but there were several speakers on the outside picking up the noise as the mock-hangar and landing strip was pulled away to reveal the enormous hole in the ground. 

The two smaller monitors that were to tuned into news outlets seemed to be going mad with excitement. Rightly so, this was going to be the first look of the great ship. 

"Do a slow three-sixty turn as you rise up," said Tony doing some quick re-calculations for fuel the stunt. "Let's give them one last diva-move before we leave." 

"Fine," Hill tried to sound exasperated but was clearly amused by the idea. "But don't you dare do the Captain Kirk speech." 

"Killjoy," Tony pouted.   
.....


	10. Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leaving old friends, and some bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This time I missed the Sunday deadline, but my excuse is that I just began playing Sims 4 and it took me four and a half hours to get Tony and Loki to marry, and then a extra half hour to decorate their house. But don't worry, I'm two chapters ahead on this story so it won't be suffering.

Mortals are really stupid mused Loki as he watched Barton gulf down the rest of the candy. Elf-confectioners? Who had heard of such a thing? Try Frostgiant. Loki had spent half the night making those things. 

"This is amazing," Barton laughed. "I'm in heaven, literally! I told you I could eat them!" 

"Yes, you did," Loki smiled. 

"The Clarity thing was a bit messed up, but totally fine with it because these are do fucking good. Can you get more?"

"It's not impossible."

Barton smiled and chewed like he had reached Valhalla. Loki watched him carefully for any significant changes. There was nothing that stood out to him directly, except many the way he was possessively hugging the dwindling box of candy to his chest. Further study was needed. 

But as it were there was nothing else to do but wait. 

Barton was picking the final crumbs out of the box with a wet fingertip. Loki frowned and looked over at the monitor depicting Anthony. 

The Heidrun's launch seemed to have gone well. There were smiles and excitement all around the people on the bridge. It was probably good that Loki wasn't there, by the sight of it someone would probably have had tried to hug him or do a so called 'high five'. Most likely Thor. He shuddered but smiled as he noticed Anthony was waiving at him through the camera and making a thumbs up. 

"Seriously," said Barton who had opened up one of his food packages. "Everything tastes so much better. I never knew that a cheese sandwich could be this awesome!" He took a big bite while continuing talking. "You totally have to do this to Natasha as well, she's going to flip."

"If you say so," Loki leaned back and looked out of the front window towards the myriad of stars there. "Though it's very individual. Your mind was turned on to taste..." 

"I'm fucking turned on to this sandwich," Barton stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth. 

Loki smirked. Barton was going to blow up to look like Volstagg if he continued to swallow down food at this rate. He sighed, it probably lay on his responsibility to stop that from happening. Maybe he could steer him towards cooking. 

" _Heidrun to Greaser and Grinder_ " said Anthony's voice from the speakers, his face coming up as a hologram screen on the window. 

"Tanngrisner here," Barton answered. 

" _Tanngnorst_ here," confirmed Romanoff's voice. 

At least the two of them knew how to pronounce the names correctly. Loki could almost hear Thor's irritation through the image in the monitor. His evil plan to upset his adopted brother was going very well indeed. 

" _We did it!_ " cheered Anthony. " _Go Team Avengers! Good bye looser planet._ "

" _We can still hear you, Tony,_ " sighed Colonel Rhodes from ground control. 

" _Only because I let you. What's the news from Earth?_ "

" _You have been gone for five minutes, man. I'm sure you can still get CNN since you are on a half collision course with their satellite._ "

" _I know, but what are the_ real _news_?"

" _The military are pissed that you left all their spy-stuff behind, the press are pissed because none of you made any personal statements, and CIA are pissed that you didn't take Deadpool with you._ "

" _The military can kiss my ass, the press can shove it up their asses, and tell CIA that I didn't have the heart to take Spider-Man's boyfriend away from him, I like the kid even if he has a mad taste in life partners. He quite reminds me of myself in that respect._ "

Loki rolled his eyes. 

" _Now,_ " Anthony straightened up into a dramatic pose. " _I have intergalactic ship to run, some teammates to pick up, and a bunch of science fiction movies to quote._ " 

" _Please don't,_ " begged Rhodes. 

" _To infinity and beyond!_ " said Anthony in a mocking grand voice. " _Roads? We don't need roads where we are going! Up, up and away!_ "

" _Live long and prosper,_ " Rhodes laughed. 

Then there was a moment of silence, Loki almost thought Anthony had looted off, but then he spoke again. 

" _Goodbye, old friend,_ " Anthony almost whispered. 

" _God's speed, and good luck to you,_ " Rhodes voice was breaking. " _Earth, over and out._ "

There was several seconds of silence. Barton wiped his eyes. Loki watched the monitor. 

"Thor," he breathed. "Give Anthony a hug for me."

" _You don't..._ " started Anthony, but quieted down when Thor's large arms engulfed him.

.............

Steve left the bridge after Tony's farewell to Rhodes. He hadn't understood any of the movie-references, except for the 'live long and prosper'-one, but the sentiment was clear. Tony and Rhodes were two best friends that would never see each other again. Steve knew all about leaving people behind. 

"Steve?" 

He turned to see that Bucky had followed him into the elevator. Steve smiled. 

"Wild, huh?" he said. "We're in space. Just like we imagined when we were on that rooftop back in Brooklyn... I was reading you that story about that Martian king..."

"I don't remember that," Bucky looked sad as he gave half a smile. "But, yeah, it's wild."

"Do... do you want me to tell you about it? The rooftop, I mean."

"It can wait," he smiled, more genuine this time. 

They stepped out as the doors opened. JARVIS had taken them to the recreational floor. Steve sighed as he looked at the trackway that circled the room twice like a folded eight. He had already spent hours on it, and there would be even more hours coming. The difference now was the view out the round porthole windows. 

No more metallic hangar, just space and stars. At the moment the planet Earth was shining it's blue reflective light through the room. Steve walked over to look out at his former home. It was so cliché, he knew it, but it looked so fragile. 

Perhaps it would be safer now with them gone. 

"Want to talk about it?" asked Bucky. 

"Everything just feels so final," Steve started walking the track. "We left Earth, forever. I never thought of it like this before... But I'm Captain America. Out here 'America' doesn't mean anything. It's just a word."

"You never liked that name," Bucky shook his head. 

"None of us did," Steve laughed bitterly. "Captain America was a monkey on a unicycle there to entertain the troops and the people sitting in the movie theatres. It meant nothing out in the field. It's just a costume."

"And a body."

"Yeah."

They smiled together, stopping to look out at Earth again. The planet was slowly getting smaller. It was hard to make out any shapes through the clouds and blue atmosphere, but Steve thought he could distinguish parts of South America. 

"Thank you," said Bucky after a while. 

"For what?"

"You did this for me."

"Tony did this for Loki," Steve shook his head. "We were just lucky to catch a ride. I have no idea what I would have done if I was alone."

"Yes, you have," Bucky put his non-metal arm around his shoulders. 

"I would have kicked their asses."

"Precisely. So thank you."

Steve laughed again. It was really an absurd situation. He placed his arm around Bucky's shoulders as well. 

"You know," leered Bucky. "This is actually quite romantic."

"Too bad that you're so ugly," Steve deadpanned. 

"And that you have a fat ass," countered his friend.

"My ass is perfect, thank you very much. I've had several offers."

"Desperate people. I pity them."

"Screw you."

"You wish."

Steve tackled Bucky to the floor. Bucky was ready though and made a good landing to fight back. Steve was ready for the counterattack and moved away before the metal-fist hit him, he raised his elbow but was hindered by a forearm. 

Their legs and feet fought over balance and footing. Steve managed to get in a hit on the side of Bucky's face but received a knee in the gut for it. He coughed but still continued his arm-fencing moves that Bucky met with perfect ease. 

Finally Steve saw a opening and latched out a leg towards the back of Bucky's knee, he discovered the ruse to late and was taken down with the fall. He fell halfway across Bucky's torso. Both of them lost their breath but it didn't stop them from rolling around, wrestling, and laughing their faces off. 

" _Eh, guys?_ " asked Tony's voice from the ceiling. " _Everything okay? It's too early for cabin fever, isn't it?_ "

"We're fine!" called Steve under Bucky's half-nelson. 

"I am anyway!" called Bucky. 

"You're so going down." 

Steve kicked loose and managed to bend away the metal arm behind Bucky's back, but only for a moment before being pushed away down to his own back. He used the force of the momentum to lever Bucky over his head. 

The other man landed on his back as well, they were top of head to shoulder, ear to ear. Neither of the could stop laughing. 

" _I'm calling it_ " said Tony. " _You're both mad. I'm out, I have a ship to fly. Don't destroy it before we even passed the moon. The Hulk cage is not reserved for the Hulk alone, you know._ "

A beeping noise was heard as the bridge disconnected from the speakers. 

Steve and Bucky lay still, breathing, giggling. 

"We are so useless on this ship," Steve turned his head to meet his friend's upside down eyes. 

"I don't know about you, but the I'm hoping for space-pirates. Loki said that they are called 'Raiders' and are pretty vicious. I bet they put up a good fight."

"We are mad, aren't we?"

"We're all a bit mad around here."

"Are you trying to make me say that I got the reference? Because I did,"

"You are happy you got your brains because everything else is failing,"

...............

"They are at it again," said Bruce looking at the security monitors. 

He wasn't worried that something was wrong. Just friendly banter between two super-enhanced best friends still rediscovering themselves after several decades apart. It was kind of sweet in a way, if you didn't count the extreme violence. Neither of them were holding back. 

"They should just fuck each other and get it over with," said Tony. 

"I don't think they want to fuck each other," Bruce sighed as he forced himself to use Tony's language. "They are just friends."

"Ten bucks," said Tony. 

"Money has no value up here, as you well know. Anyway I gave away all I had to charities. My only currencies are my intelligence and the Hulk."

"Both excellent and valuable traits. I can get a very good price for you for either of those. As soon as we get our navigators back onboard we're setting course for a trading post."

Bruce shook his head. He knew that Tony was joking and would never do anything like that even if he was threatened to his life, but the thought was still unsettling. As it were, everyone, except maybe Thor and Loki, were dependent on Tony for their survival. 

A trading post would actually be the best destination, thought Bruce, it would be good to know what each of their skills were worth compared to other aliens. Who knew if their high tech Earth science was a good commodity or just qualified them as kindergarten teachers? 

He really hoped that his knowledge was worth something, going around as the Hulk selling his services wasn't a good prospect. Though it would go pretty far and bad before Tony's funds and ingenuity ran out. And after that, they still had the crown prince of Asgard among them. 

"I think they are resolving what ever it is the best way they know how," said Darcy looking at the two men sparring on the small screen. "Lots of testosterone flying around down there."

Coulson was watching like it was the Olympics, which was the only comparison Bruce could make since the only time he even bothered looking at something sport-like was during the Olympics, and that was only partly because of the historical aspect. 

"I can go break them up," suggested Leo Fitz. 

Everyone, even Hill who had been ignoring the conversation, turned to look at the skinny young man. He looked ready to go. Jemma Simmons just stared at him as an overworked mother, it wasn't the first time he suggested something like this. Loki's Moment of Clarity had really taken on him. 

A small flag of warning suddenly rose inside Bruce. Loki's Moments of Clarities usually was just that, a moment. An idea to draw from and ponder over. He should know, he had three of them. His Emotional one, the one about loneliness, was only in the back of his mind, like a concept or a feeling to motivate him to move forward. 

Leo's moment seemed to be still ongoing several weeks later. But what did Bruce know? Maybe this was his way of coping. And then there was that thing with the quick healing of his hand...

"Maybe we should concentrate on keeping an eye on the science," Bruce said. "They are not hurting anyone but their selves, and I'm a hundred precent sure they would stop if anyone actually got hurt."

They all settled down again to their tasks. The results from the outside sensors were pouring in. Kingsley excused himself and returned to the Med-bay, he still had a garden to plan, and as soon as everything settled down there were medical examinations to be done. 

Coulson and Darcy still watched the sparring, but the again it _could_ be argued that it fell under their jurisdiction as inventory- and morality-officers. Thor was also watching, but only because he appreciated a good fight as he commented on the moves. 

..........

Steve felt better than he had done in years. He was sore and actually a bit bruised, but he was happy. If it was the relief of finally letting all his obligations to Earth go, or the fight that had released tensions between him and Bucky as far back as Washington, he didn't know. Probably both. 

Anyway it felt hella good. 

After some damage assessments (nothing major), some washing up, a change of clothes, and some food and rest, Steve and Bucky arrived to Tanngnorst's docking room to help with unloading the cargo. Tony, Bruce, Coulson, and Thor were already there. Bruce's dog ran up to greet them, Steve patted the animal's head. 

"You both fight with good valour," boomed Thor. "I would like to try on your skills sometime."

"Not onboard my ship," said Tony not looking up from his pad. "You have to find a nice deserted planet to romp around on for that."

"Agreed," nodded Thor. "Mother always said I have a tendency to break things when I get excited."

Steve and Bucky exchanged worried glances. Coulson actually looked a bit excited, which was also a bit worrying. 

There wasn't much more time for talking since a small shake of the room and a grinding noise indicated that Tanngnorst had just docked. 

They all gathered around the door, it was round, about two meters it width and made of rubber and steel. After about half a minute the locks began moving and the hatch was opening. 

"All right in there?" called Tony. 

"We're good," Natasha stepped out, she too was greeted by the dog. "Jane wants help carrying her equipment though."

Thor immediately hurried passed her to get inside. Steve and Bucky followed more slowly, Coulson was reading out loud from the shipping manifest of what order he wanted the cargo unloaded in. 

"I'm just going to scan you for radiation," said Bruce holding up a small machine to Natasha. 

She nodded and held out her arms as Bruce began his scan and Tony began a rapid fire of technical questions. 

.............

About five hours after the launch the Tanngrisner connected with the Heidrun. They walked onto the bigger ship through the docking point. 

During that time Loki had read one of the books from the reading list Anthony gave him (the author obviously knew nothing about real dwarfs but it had been entertaining), pondered his life choices by looking at the stars, and watched Barton nibble his way through their provisions. 

"We should be happy we don't have any more food in our cargo," said Loki as he packed away the electronic device he had been reading on. "Your friends would have starved."

"It's just the newness of it," Barton was picking crumbs of his suit. "I'll get used to it."

Loki was doubtful. 

Romanoff, Anthony, and Banner with his animal were waiting for them. Banner scanned them with a radiation device before letting them greet the other two. 

"Thanks for the hug," said Anthony with a smirk. "Though I think Thor enjoyed it more than I did."

"You taste so good!" exclaimed Barton and pulled Romanoff into the closest and deepest kiss he could manage with her belly between them. 

Romanoff's legs buckled. It was quite awkward. 

"Hrm," Banner cleared his throat and turned to Loki. "Did you have a good trip?"

"I gave Barton a Moment of Clarity and now he has a deeper emotional connection to the sense of taste."

"Well that's nice," Anthony watched Romanoff half-heartedly struggle for air. 

"Yes..." agreed Banner slowly tilting his head. "Isn't it?" 

The dog whined. 

Loki rolled his eyes and gave the two men a magical push out of the room so that Barton could have a bit of privacy in his tasting session. Romanoff gave him a thankful look as he did. 

"I'll better tell the others to hold off unloading here for a while," said Banner. 

"You do that," Anthony leered. "Me and Loki's going to have some alone time as well."

Which meant that Anthony was going to talk himself and Loki to sleep about everything that had happened since they last saw each other. Loki had found it was a quite pleasant way to spend time, it also kept him fairly updated without snooping to much inside the others' comfort zones. 

Anthony had already begun talking. 

....


	11. Maps and feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony shows off his new star map, different star-alliances are set, and Loki gives out more Clarities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for temporary angst in this chapter, possible trigger for cancer. 
> 
> This chapter also made me break out my ten year forgotten knowledge of university-level math. The Marvel universe might be AU from our own with better technology, but it still works on the same physical principles. 
> 
> Also, did you know that Jupiter is 600 000 000 kilometres away?

"You're not impressed at all are you?" said Tony a bit sad.

"I could be coaxed to be impressed if you give me something more to go on," sighed Loki in his agitating way that only contributed for Tony to get more excited about the thing that he was arguing for.

They were in the navigation room, a large table was projecting a map over the part of Solar-system. Tony was quite proud over it, JARVIS had been working on it for nearly twenty-five hours. Coincidentally just the amount of time it had taken Heidrun to reach and pass the Moon's orbit.

At that point they were far enough away from Earth to start up Tony's powerful reactor engines and really get some speed on. 

The Moon itself had sadly not been on their course. Their main goal was to come into a good angle to Jupiter, any planet or natural satellite they passed close enough on their way was only bonus. They would, by Tony's genius calculation, get their best and closest views of Mars and Saturn's moon Rhea.

They would reach the planet Mars in about eight days, though plenty of science could be done up until then. They were extremely lucky that both Earth's and Mars's orbits were almost at their closest at the moment, and that their trajectories lined up. 

The three-dimensional map had all the phases of the planets and their various moons and asteroids plotted out in real time. Though that wasn't what he expected Loki to be impressed about. Jane had already shown enough appreciation over it to last him a lifetime.

At the moment she was deep in calculations in her notebook and wasn't responding to any outside stimulus. Leo and Jemma were standing on either side of her, dividing their attention between looking down on her work and comparing it to the map. It must be good because they looked quite impressed.

Impressed in a way Loki hadn't been when Tony described the amount of time it would take them to reach Jupiter. Three months, by the way. Six hundred million kilometres in three months. How couldn't anyone be impressed?

It was a month less than originally calculated. Somebody give him a freaking medal! Super-genius coming through! He'd like to thank the academy. With the help of some of his almost equally genius friends, (and perhaps a bit of his father's legacy) of course, mustn't forget about those.

Tony was glad Bruce had taken Cow to the little dog's room, aka the greenhouse, because his friend would have turned a little green with frustration at Loki's disinterest. Bruce was very passionate about these kind of things.

"You are too spoiled with your teleportation, your inter-dimensional life-tree and rainbow bridge. Real distances doesn't mean anything to you."

"Rude," Loki gave him a glare. "But do go on."

"It's faster than human made object have ever gone this fast before, and that was just a small probe with a tiny camera. That's about zero point zero twenty-six percent of the speed of light!"

Loki looked at him like he was talking about talking sheep.

"That's zero point zero six warp speed," said Jemma.

Tony stared at her.

"What?" she blushed. "I'm a Trekkie."

"I'm telling you now, girl, if my boyfriend wasn't here I'd kiss you."

"I'm still not impressed," Loki crossed his arms.

"Well, everyone else is," Tony sighed. "I'll just have to live with that. Anyway as planned I'll be using these three months to rebuild the engines. When we get to Jupiter we'll turn everything off for seventy hours, put us in a slingshot orbit. From there we will reboot everything, start the new engines and presto! Five months later we are out of the Solar system,"

"Five months?" Loki raised an eyebrow. "All that and it still will take five months?"

"Do you even understand how big space is?" Tony waived his arms. "Tell him, Simmons!"

"After engine modifications we will increase our speed capacity with nearly five-hunded and fifty percent."

"And in warp?"

"We will reach zero point eleven warp."

"Only that?" asked Leo.

"It's an exponential scale," she shrugged. "To get to one warp you got to have light speed."

"Oh."

Loki looked as the talking sheep had met up with a bunch of singing llamas and decided to move to a jet ski travel resort.

"Don't worry," Jane looked up from her notes. "It's only made up science. There is no such thing as warp drive or Star Trek."

"You take that back, young lady!" Tony gasped in fake heart attack.

"Now Star Wars on the other hand..." Jane smiled wistfully.

"Blasphemy!" Tony kneeled down on the floor, clutching his chest. "In my own house! Fitz, settle this!"

"Actually, I like Stargate," said the young man boldly.

Tony faked another heart attack, this one with a bit more failing around. When he looked up Loki had left the room.

Admittedly it was a bit easier to work after that. Though when Bruce returned Jane had an ally in her Star Wars corner. Leo stayed infuriatingly neutral to either.

 

............

Darcy was leaning her forehead against the glass of the large window in the common room. She had her hand under her shirt, slowly stroking the sore grape-sized lump between her left breast and armpit.

She had been working on her first post of the Heidrun newsletter. It was supposed to be uplifting and inspiring, making the others want to contribute their own texts, short stories, images, or just diverse thoughts.

She gotten caught on the first word.

That was nearly an hour ago. Earth was the size of a basketball on the other side of the window. She couldn't see the sun from this angle but the light hit the small planet in a strange way that made it look like a green sliver of a new moon. It was beautiful and she wished she could preserve the image in her mind like a picture. By tomorrow she would begin confusing the memory of it with other memories of the actual moon and pictures from books and imagination.

The glass was surprisingly cool against her skin. Darcy forced her fingers away, the lump wouldn't disappear by erosion, neither would those further inside her body. Inoperable, Kingsley had said. He whose nickname simply was 'The Surgeon' because how skilled he was.

She straightened up and breathed on the glass where she had had her head, the impression was visible on the fogged up glass. She took a picture with her phone, the rounded sliver of Earth visible in the foggy circle. It was a nice picture, but not comparable to reality.

Why was she still taking photos?

She doubted she could connect to Instagram from here. Darcy felt a bit forlorn as she thought of her social media, and the public accounts she had created for Tony during her short time as his personal assistant. Why did she still care?

She began looking through her photo gallery. There were mostly images of New York, sunsets, food, the Avengers... Jane pointing at a rainbow. Tony and Loki staring at each other without noticing what they were doing. Clint doing the peace-sign next to a dart-board with all three darts in the middle. Bruce looking at the camera, smiling, and hugging Cow...

Darcy paused. It was her favourite picture of him.

She didn't know when she had fallen in love with him, but she had.

Perhaps it was the morning after her first run-in with the Hulk, the time when he was totally naked, hugged her a doll and called her a 'pretty girl'. It had been quite funny but the next day Bruce had been so embarrassed and apologetic bout it that she couldn't help to think him anything other than sweet.

It was Bruce's birthday in three days. His forty-eighth. She had turned thirty a few months ago. She was only thirty! It wasn't that big of an age-difference as Bruce made it out to be. They were both consenting adults, and when compared to Jane and Thor it was just ridiculous.

The other problem, Hulk, wasn't really a problem at all. Sure, it was a bit problematic that Bruce couldn't get excited, but there were ways around that. Also, not all sex needed to be energetic. Darcy was totally down for some intense tantric research, her stubbornness actually made her very patient person

The third problem.... That it wasn't fair to Bruce, he had enough troubles already. Darcy stubbornly pushed the thought away along with her tears.

She just needed to find a way to convince Bruce... But like her writing there was a block in those ideas as well. It's not fair either of us....

She looked around when she heard voices. Nobody else was in the room, it must come from outside in the corridor. It sounded like JARVIS.

"...you wouldn't want to make anyone too suspicious."

"No," said Loki's voice. "It's going to be hard enough with the amount of Clarities I have to give. Where is it?"

"The second panel on the right," said the computer. "Press the sides, it'll come away,"

"Like this?" Loki asked.

Darcy rose to her feet and walked over to the open door. She heard a metallic clicking noise as she leaned past the corner. Loki was standing a few meters away. He had taken off one of the panels off the wall and was looking over something looking like a high tech fuse box, which it probably was.

"Are you sure?" Loki glanced up to the ceiling were most people glanced while talking to JARVIS.

"Third from the right, forth from the bottom," affirmed the computer. "Good evening, Miss Lewis."

"Hello," Darcy stepped forward and walked over to Loki, it was impossible to hide from JARVIS anyway. "What are you doing?"

"An experiment," Loki frowned as he studied the circuits and the blue light they admitted. "I'm giving JARVIS an Moment of Clarity. We are investigating if it's possible to give to just one specific component instead of something general like before."

That actually sounded quite interesting. Darcy couldn't claim to know much about technology but working with Jane had at least taught her how to differentiate between what was cool science and boring science.

"Have you talked to Tony about this?"

"Anthony is busy being silly with his map," Loki rolled his eyes. "Did you know it will take us eight months just to leave the system?"

"Yeah," Darcy shook her head. "It's unreal. That's totally not the way it's works in the movies."

Somehow she had a realistic perspective, but still. They were going to be old people before they got to anywhere good at this rate. Or rather, the others were going to be old people...

She glanced at Loki, perhaps he knew something that could help. He had fixed Natasha, though that had been a mending of deliberate injuries, not...

"This better work," Loki placed his fingertips on the circuit JARVIS had directed him to before.

He whispered a few quick words, the circuit flashed with a tiny lighting. Loki swore, and pulled away as if burned. He looked at his finger, there was a small red mark.

"I'm very sorry about that, sir," said JARVIS. "I misjudged the voltage. It will not happen again."

"It's fine," Loki looked at the circuit again. "How did it go?"

"I'm recalibrating the number three telescope now. It seems to be working."

"Telescope?" Darcy frowned.

"We wanted to try it on non-vital equipment the first time," explained the computer. "Next we're hoping to look at the engines, or even life support. It could be possible calculate how to make the air and water be filtered more efficiently."

"But you forget that every other Clarity is emotional," said Loki. "It's not going to work on those systems. I have to find someone to take the emotional one, and you know how that's going to be. Nobody likes me going around handing out spells like that. They'll just think I'm up to something."

"But if it improves the ship?" Darcy frowned. "You need the the intellectual ones to do that, then you need to get the emotional ones taken care of."

"Yes, but what if someone thinks it's the other way around? That I want to alter everyone's emotions for manipulation, and just put the intellectual ones in the computer just to take care of them?"

"That doesn't seem fair," she shook her head. "You're just trying to help."

Loki made a sad shrug as if accepting his fate off always being the ex-villain that nobody really trusted. Darcy watched him put back the panel on the wall, she smirked.

"You are trying to play me," she shook her head. "You want me to offer to take the emotional one so you two can go on with your little experiment."

"What? Me?" Loki mocked innocence. "You think I'm in cahoots with a computer?"

"We wouldn't dream of it, Miss Lewis."

She almost laughed at the strange faked sincerity of the otherwise so neutral voice.

"Fine," Darcy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Lay it on me, I won't tell."

"Are you sure?" Loki looked her over. "It's not necessarily something good. I don't want to make you depressed..."

She couldn't be more depressed even if she tried. She smiled bravely.

"I got one before, remember? It made me more aware of me being a bit quirky, but I when I thought about it I realised that that's just who I am. It actually felt good to get that out of the way."

Loki was still looking hesitant. Darcy couldn't decide if it was part of a play or not. She knew that he genially liked her, and even if he was tricking her in some way he wouldn't hurt her. He actually seemed honestly concerned.

"I know, why don't we go have a cup of tea and talk about something nice. It'll probably help."

"You just want me to make you a cup of tea, don't you?"

"It's just like you know me," smiled Loki. "Creepy."

Darcy laughed and walked back into the common room and towards the refreshment corner. This was actually just what she needed. Perhaps a Clarity could take away her sad thoughts and let her concentrate on the now.

............

Tony had been quite exited when JARVIS showed him the new numbers. The computer had done some amazing recalculating of fuel-efficiency. That in turn had made Tony come up with a new engine component.

He had soon to set the 3-D printers to work making a prototype. It would need some testing, but it had great potential to work. He would have liked to have stayed longer to play a bit more but Loki called and reminded him that it was time to eat.

On his way to the kitchen he couldn't help but to stop by to check on the Mark sixty-nine Iron Man suit. The first one of his suits that was fully capable of working long hours in outer space. Tools everywhere, hygienic waste disposal, and attachable containers for beverages or liquid food.

He was also still having fun over the number.

Tomorrow he was going outside for the he first time. It was going to be epic. Tony patted the suit's chest.

He found Loki in the kitchen cooking with Steve and Clint. Sam and Hill were at the table, each reading a Stark-pad.

"Who's at the helm?" Tony asked. "Nat and Bucky?"

"Yeah," Hill looked up. "The road's pretty much clear up till Mars, we are practically running on autopilot."

Tony agreed. Still, he always wanted at least two people on the bridge in case of emergency, and the others agreed with him on that. JARVIS was amazing but how ever sentient he was there was always something special about human reactions.

"I'll change with Nat in about an hour," said Clint. "I'm on the night shift."

They were still going by New York time, though Tony toyed with the idea of slowly adding on extra hours to make the days longer. Perhaps twenty-six hours to a day. It would also make the journey psychologically seem to go a little faster.

Though it would probably be discovered in the long run, especially since there were women aboard that could tell time either by their cycles or pregnancies. Female biology one, Tony's sneaking efficiency zero.

He sighed and turned to Loki.

"What's cooking, babe?"

"Food," answered Loki.

"My favourite, how'd you know?"

"It's my favourite too," said Clint licking the spoon he had just been stirring a pot with.

"We're practically twins, but wash that before you use it again."

They were interrupted by a beeping signal through the speakers. It was the Hulk alarm. At first they were all surprised to hear it. Bruce hadn't hulked out in over a month and they had gotten used to the calm.

"Damn it!" Tony hurried over to one of the touchscreens on the wall. "What happened? Do we need to ready the airlock?

"There's no threats to the ship, sir," JARVIS reported. "Dr Banner is not angry, he was just startled and dropped his cup of hot coffee over his shirt."

"He turned because of spilled coffee?" Sam frowned.

The screen was showing the big lab. The Hulk was sitting on the floor, looking a bit confused and out of place. All his clothes were ripped. Bruce had forgone the stretchy pants today. Darcy was standing next to him, patting his arm.

"It was very hot coffee, sir. Also he was startled."

"What startled him?" asked Steve.

"Miss Lewis had a private conversation with him, Captain."

"It must have been some conversation," Loki said innocently.

"Did you have anything to do with this?" Tony asked.

"She said she had something important to tell him," Loki shrugged and returned to his cooking. "I just told her to go for it. It is painful to see them skittle around each other. Banner is a fool to deny himself her just because of some minor obstacles."

"'Minor'?" repeated Hill. "You call Hulk a 'minor problem'?"

"Should we be worried?" asked Sam.

Hulk had grabbed hold of Darcy and started to hug and pet her. He reminded Tony of a toddler who just had been taught on how to handle a kitten. His big green hands were the size of half her body. Darcy was leaning into his touch, it looked like she was crying.

"I think it's all right," Tony hesitated. "Keep an eye on it though." He turned back to his boyfriend. "Are you handing out love-advice now?"

"No," Loki scoped up some kind of stew on to a deep plate. "Only tactical advice."

....


	12. Trying to do right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki thinks Mars is boring, and has some ideas that might or might not work out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To keep track of all the magic 'gifts' Loki has done in the first part (Working with what we got) and so far in this part I've made this list:  
> Loki's gifts in Part One
> 
> * Coulson: Stretching of scar tissue for better mobility.  
> * Clint: Loki taking over his aftermath of possession.  
> * Natasha: Ability to become pregnant and prenatal care.   
> * Jane: IMoC: Understands theory behind Bifrost.   
> * Darcy: EMoC : More aware of her quirkiness.   
> * Tony: IMoC: Alterations to Iron Man suit for space (but lies and claims attraction to Loki).   
> * Bruce: EMoC: Insight of his loneliness.   
> * Steve: IMoC: Think like Bucky to find him  
> * Pepper: EMoC: Realised she is too emotionally reliant on Tony.   
> * Bucky: IMoC: Remembered who he is.   
> * Dummy: EMoC: Emotions.   
> * Clint: Gets his mental troubles back per request.   
> * Bruce: IMoC: Radiation protection (but lies and claims attraction to Darcy).  
> * Jarvis: EMoC: Intellect  
> * Jarvis: IMoC: Emotions   
> * Thor: Vision of Clarity: Made him see from Loki's POV
> 
> Moments of Clarity in Part 2
> 
> Banner - radiation protection   
> •Fitz - self-confidence   
> Richards - prank  
> •Clint - taste experience   
> Jarvis - telescope upgrade  
> •Darcy - commitment   
> Jarvis - fuel efficiency

Mars was boring. 

From the big expectations that the humans had built up Loki was gravely disappointed. It was just a big red ball of sand and rock. The grim landscape on Svartalfheim, were Loki nearly had bleed out, had been more stimulating to watch. 

The humans were falling over themselves with excitement though. They were even slowing down the engines to take better readings. Jane had even sent off a small machine to look at the surface. They had watched it scurry passed the window. 

Fitz and Simmons were sitting so close to the glass they looked like the images often depicted of young children around the holiday of Christmas. Neither of them were looking directly out of the window though, both of them were pressing Stark-pads to the glass, zooming in and out with their cameras and taking notes. 

It was maddening. 

"Isn't it awesome, babe?" Anthony was looking out over the round irregularly orange blob hanging outside the large window. 

Loki gave him a glare. 

They were in the common room, some of the decorations from Banner's birthday a week ago were still up. Who was responsible for those anyway? Loki had a sneaking suspicion that it might be him since he had been the one forced to conjure them up, but someone ought to have told him if he was the one meant to take them down as well. 

The party would had been a good opportunity for Loki to bestow another Clarity on someone, but he had tactically chosen not to. It was best not to be too eager with carrying out the plan. Banner had been giving him some looks but had thankfully been distracted by Darcy. 

With whatever insight the Clarity had given her she had finally won Banner's heart over. He had spent more time with her than on his own research ever since the last incident with the Hulk. They were now sitting on the sofa not far from Loki and Anthony, holding hands, leaning into each other. 

The dog was draped over their laps, gently snoring. 

Loki hadn't known why JARVIS had asked him to give the potion and Clarity to Darcy next. Honestly, he had been thinking of taking another temporary tactical retreat, observe Barton for a while, and maybe try his luck with Sam Wilson. 

JARVIS suggesting Darcy was very unexpected, but he had guessed the computer knew something he didn't. With complete access to all files onboard there was probably very little the computer did't know. 

She had told her him about the illness the day after the party, Loki had been quite chocked. She and Banner had spent a lot of time talking to Kingsley before turning to Loki. 

They had been right, he couldn't have cured Darcy on his own. This was a illness that even Asgardians could get. Darcy was lucky she had received the potion after she gotten the illness, if it had been the other way around it would have been much harder to cure. 

Loki was both relived and angry. 

The potion would slowly but surely cure the illness within a few weeks. Darcy was a dear friend is o him, and loosing her too soon would have been devastating, but Loki worried that any kind of a so called 'miracle' would jeopardise his plans. It was hard enough for him to make them ignore Fitz' injured hand. 

Thankfully so far Darcy had only told Kingsley, Banner, and Loki about her illness. She didn't want to worry anyone. A very human thing to do. It was noble, Loki supposed, but not fair to those around her. For the moment it was for the best that nobody else knew. 

JARVIS wouldn't tell anyone if it didn't comprise the ship's safety, which it hardly would. 

For now he had to let them believe she was still ill. It was not a nice thing to do but it was better in the long run. To ward off Kingsley's knife and Banner's experimental radiation, Loki had put her on a fake prescription. The drops he put in her tea every morning was just a simple vanilla extract. It was the best Loki could do for now. 

He felt quite bad for deceiving her this way, but at least she had Banner to comfort her now. At least he hoped that it was giving her comfort. 

"It's kind of romantic, don't you think?" Anthony hummed, still caught on the idiotic planet. "Want to try holding hands?" 

Loki hesitated for a moment but then held out his hand towards Anthony. He took a breath as Anthony enclosed it in his. It was too warm. The idiotic things he did to keep this man happy. 

Times like these Loki regretted not letting one of the larger Chitauri ships crash on Earth. Then Anthony would have had access to real intergalactic engines to build from, not this damnable slow trial and error system that was in place that Anthony continually risked his life to build. Loki was more or less spending his time looking at surveillance monitors depicting Anthony working on the engines and worrying that the security lines were going to break. 

'Slingshot around Jupiter' they had said, what did that even mean?

If they continued at this rate it wouldn't matter how hard he worked to prolong their pathetic lives, the humans would grow old and die before even reaching the centre of the galaxy. And Loki would get stuck with Romanoff's and Barton's child as his only companion, because he would be the only other person left aboard the ship after Thor leaves for Asgard with his own children. 

He couldn't go on giving the computer intelligence boosts either. JARVIS too was of Midgard, born out of a Midgardian mind with Midgardian limits. What ever calculations and improvements he got, how ever brilliant, would always be tainted by those limitations. 

There was only one solution to this problem, Loki just had to teleport the whole damn ship. 

He hadn't moved something this large and so far in over two centuries, when he had been asked to relocate the great sea serpent Jörmundgundr from Midgard to keep it safe from the humans ever more developing seafaring vessels. He had been at the top of his strength back then, before... before everything that happened happened. 

Moving the ship was going to take a huge amount of power on his part and would most likely hurt like being stabbed all over again. But if that was the prize he had to pay to give the humans the adventures that they deserved, so be it. He would recover. 

"Enough," Loki took his hand back and rubbed it with his other hand to get normality back. "This is not romantic. It's a big dusty rock."

"No respect," laughed Anthony. "It's a planet. You're lucky you're pretty."

"Or I'm pretty because I'm lucky," Loki smiled back. "Not everybody can say that."

Barton huffed from the small fort of cushions that he had built around himself and Romanoff who had fallen asleep over him. She could be faking it but looked too content with her position to be blamed for it. Barton was playing with her hair. 

"You consider yourself lucky?" he asked. 

"All considered, yes. I assure you that if any of you had denied me your hospitality after my return, my looks would be seriously in decline by now. If even existent. Now I'm here with Anthony, who thinks I'm pretty, and that I consider lucky."

"Babe," Anthony gushed. 

"Granted," Barton inclined his head. "If you look at it that way."

Against all odds the human had not gained as much weight as expected during the past week and a half. Partly due to strict food rations and his own daily vigorous training, and partly because Loki had begun teaching him the fine art of savouring. 

Admittedly, Barton had gotten some kind of stimulation-overload at Banner's party and gone into what Anthony affectionally had named a 'freaky form of food-coma'. The following day had had Barton taken possession of the only private bathroom aboard, the one that had been purposely put in on the chance of any onboard infection. It stood for Barton as a good learning example of what not to do in the future. 

Still, it gave Loki some hope for Anthony when it would be his turn. 

Loki turned back to Anthony, who was watching him with more affection than he was comfortable with. Anthony would never allow Loki to teleport the ship. Anthony wasn't a fool, well, he wasn't stupid. He would know how much it would pain, even possibly hurt, Loki to do so. 

"I need you to prepare the Freeze Machine for me."

"Are you feeling ill?" 

Anthony suddenly looked very concerned, it felt flattering. Loki smiled to reassure him. 

"I just need to rest for a while." 

"How long a while?" Anthony glanced at him. 

Loki understood the hesitation. The Freeze Machine would take up energy, energy that had to be taken from somewhere else. As they had not yet perfected the converter that would use Thor's powers to something more useful than boasting, and even less a way to incorporate it, energy was still dependent on Anthony's reactors and on the fuel. 

"Let's say that I feel a need to gather my strength. All of it."

"Babe," Anthony shook his head with a sigh and placed his hands on his hips. "When you say stuff like that I really start to worry that you are up to something. Also, you shouldn't be feeling tired this early on. It contradicts your normal recovery time. What have you been doing?"

Loki hated that Anthony had managed to put numbers and statistics to his magic. It somehow made it feel lesser than it was. Sure there were still elements of surprise and wonder, but they were on their way to get charted as well. It was yet another part of himself that he was giving up for the sake of being cared for by the man he had fallen for. 

He took a step closer, invading Anthony's personal space in a very seductive manner, playing heavily on their significant height difference and the human's strange kink for sensual authority and like of Loki's features. It was a lowly trick, one that everyone saw through, but one that Anthony loved. Loki supposed it was sexy, though he had no way to tell except for the reactions he got for it. 

"Trust me when I say that anything I may or may not be up to will be of benefit to you, my love."

"Okay," breathed Anthony, coquettishly putting his hand over his arc reactor. "I'm convinced. Who else needs a cold shower?"

"Pushover," teased Barton. "You trade us all for a smouldering look."

Loki knew Barton wasn't worried, if he was then he would have protested more and with less humour. Perhaps the archer thought it would be calmer if Loki stepped away for a while and let Anthony lay all his concentration on the engines. 

"Eh, I take what I can get," shrugged Anthony. "Anyway, the solar panels are still juicing, and the machine will actually save us a bit of coolant of we connect the exhaust to the fans."

Coulson who so far had been quiet in a corner chair with his logbook made an interested sound at this. He liked to save things, Loki had noticed, especially resources. 

"Let's get everything fired up." Anthony rubbed his hands together. "Chop, chop, Lamb chops, the sooner I get to tuck you in, the sooner I can kiss you good night."

Loki rolled his eyes. It was a new thing they had started just a few days ago. He had started letting Anthony give him a quick kiss before going to sleep at night. It did nothing for Loki, he could feel the touch itch long after it was possible to itch anymore, especially because of the beard, but it actually made Anthony sleep easier and that was what mattered. 

They had discussed it beforehand, of course, Loki making sure that Anthony understood that the kiss was not the first step towards sex in the future. Loki was not being 'worn down' or 'giving in', he was just compromising for the sake of the relationship, again. Though this time the power of being able to withhold the kiss for punishment or extortion was worth it and too good to pass over. 

"Loki?" Banner hesitated. "What about...?"

Darcy's silly vanilla drops. 

Loki could just give Banner the bottle, but knowing the scientist he would start analysing the content before the lid even had closed on the Freeze Machine. 

Darcy's beginning recovery would most likely become visible before Loki was fully restored. Miracles were suspicious, especially to a ship half-full of scientists. Darcy would tell Banner about the Clarity that she got, she would then tell Anthony about the ones that JARVIS had gotten. Not before long they would ask Thor, the worst liar in Asgard, what was going on. 

There was nothing to do about it. Banner must be let into the secret. But to do that he needed to be the next subject. 

Loki really would have wanted to do Wilson, Rogers and Barnes before moving on to Banner. Wilson first because he was a soldier, Rogers second because he was an enhanced soldier, Barnes third because he was a gruesomely enhanced soldier, and then Banner who was just gruesomely enhanced. It would have been the most logical way to best study the changes in them. 

No such luck. Banner was simply too intelligent.

"Come with me," Loki sighed. "Anthony, you go on ahead. I just need to assist Banner with something first."

"Anything I can do?" Anthony's curiosity was immediately awoken. 

"No, it's fine," Banner disentangled himself from Darcy and the dog. "I just need Loki to put some fake radiation on a project I'm working on. It's kind of time-sensitive."

"That's why he's tired, you know," Anthony shook his head. "You making him do experiments."

"As if you don't," Loki smirked. 

"Those are legitimate investigations on the physics of magic."

"What ever you say, darling," Loki gave him a knowing look. "I won't be long. Go start up the machine and then you can go back to your rock-gazing."

"It's a fucking planet!"

Loki ignored the shout, he walked away confident that Banner would follow him. Anthony would most likely look at the surveillance, but Loki trusted JARVIS to have some difficulties with some cameras. 

They took the elevator up to the sleeping quarters. Loki tried to figure out how to put his words right for this. Usually words came easy for him but this was hard, not only because of the potential of angering the Hulk. 

"So," he said as flippant as he could muster as they walked the corridor towards his and Anthony's room. "How is it going with Darcy?"

"Better than expected," Banner have a sad smile. "I regret being so hesitant in the beginning. We could have had more time..."

"You still have plenty of time," Loki touched the pad that opened the door to the room. 

"I saw the x-rays," Banner shook his head. "It has spread to her lungs... Your placebo won't work for much longer."

Loki paused, his hand halfway to the vanilla bottle in his potions cupboard. 

"I talked to Thor," Banner continued and Loki froze even more. "He said that he only know of one cure and it's rare even on Asgard, it's sacred and would never be allowed to be given to a human."

"I know of what you speak," nodded Loki, surprised that Thor actually had managed to keep a secret. "It's indeed forbidden for humans."

"She's so young," Banner sat down on the bed, on Loki's side. "Only thirty years... She didn't tell anyone because she wanted to see space. We would have brought her even if we knew..."

"I know," Loki sighed and took the vanilla bottle from the shelf. "Actually, this is not entirely what you would call a 'placebo', it does actually help reduce any fevers or pains she could be having."

"Oh, that's good," Banner smiled. "I didn't think of that. Thank you."

"She's my friend," Loki shrugged as he finally figured out how to do this, it had the potential of going very wrong but... "I don't know how long I will need to be in the Freeze Machine... I better make a new batch for her. It won't take long."

"I'll wait."

Loki gave a nod and began pretending mixing things together, it was just illusions but Banner wasn't watching too hard. Now he just needed to distract him from any too sad thoughts. Thankfully Banner gave the opening himself. 

"What are you going to do when you have rested?"

"A propulsion experiment."

It was close enough to the truth. He couldn't say 'I'm teleporting the ship as far into the galaxy as I can without putting my own health in too big a risk', Banner would never agree to that. 

"With magic? On the engines? I understand why you don't want to tell Tony about that. Those things are his babies." 

"I trust you not to tell him before I wake up, it will be easier to convince him if he hasn't had enough time to think about it."

"Sure," Banner laughed. "But you need to convince me too."

"I think I'm already am," Loki smiled and held out a spoon with a drop of liquid on it. "Lick this, is it too salty?" 

Banner took the spoon and licked it, he seemed a bit surprised when the taste was of honey and apple blossom nectar. Loki moved fast, placed his hands on the sides of Banner's head, and placed the Moment of Clarity on him. 

Hulk broke the bed with his weight. Then he almost broke Loki's arms by grabbing them and holding him up by them. In desperation Loki managed to teleport both himself and the beast to what he hoped was the reinforced airlock, before promptly passing out. 

.....


	13. The ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony takes on a new discovery, it isn't as easy as it seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter, I had to stay true to the first part ;)

"How does it save cooler?" asked Coulson leaning in to watch Tony work. 

Tony had managed to attach a tube to the Freeze Machine and was currently trying to feed it through one of the air ducts. Or rather he was watching a digital map of the ventilation system where a red dot representing Clint, crawling through one of the air ducts pulling the tube after him, was blinking. 

"Well..." Tony checked the readings on the screen. "The machine is cold, and at some points Loki is even colder, if we can harness that to cool the engines... Well, that's it really." He shrugged. 

Coulson nodded. They listened to some grunting noises as Clint turned a corner. Tony snickered. Clint was going to deny it, but he had gained just a little weight. Coulson glanced at him. 

"Couldn't you have had a bot to do this?" 

"Where's the fun in that?"

Then the Hulk alarm set off. 

"Damn it, Loki," sighed Tony. "What did you do?"

.....

Steve was spotting for Sam who was lifting weights when he heard the Hulk alarm. He just about had time to help put the barbell back in the holder when Hulk arrived from nowhere in the middle of the gym and throwing an unconscious Loki across the room. It was a miracle that the shatterproof mirror didn't shatter. 

There wasn't too much thinking after that. Steve rushed forward to try to subdue the Hulk, first by talking, and then combining talking with being a hard-to-hit target. He noticed between his moves that Sam was looking to Loki. 

After about half a minute, that felt more like half an hour, Tony came rushing in followed by a group of other people that Steve was too busy to distinguish. He noticed that Tony was holding the Emergency Syringe though. 

"Bruce!" called a female voice. "Bruce!"

"Aargh!" responded Hulk and nearly hit Steve over the head but he blow was stopped by Thor catching his arm. 

"Cease this immediately," called Thor. "Or I will fight you."

"No!" Tony yelled. "Don't fight! Space is just on the other side of that very fragile wall and... What happened to Loki?!"

Without even looking he threw the syringe to Steve, who caught it with one hand, and ran over to Loki. From what Steve could see the guy was still out cold. 

"What the fuck happened?" Tony was obviously panicking as he pushed away Sam who had been examining the knocked out alien. "Don't touch him, he doesn't like that."

Steve was too distracted to catch Darcy who was running past him towards the Hulk. He was just about to pull her back when Hulk caught sight of her and immediately stopped his face-off with Thor.

"Bruce, it's me," said Darcy, wise enough to stand at a fairly safe distance. "Calm down. What happened?"

Hulk seemed a bit confused as he looked around. He most likely had no idea how he had got to the gym. Thor stood ready by his side if anything was to happen, he seemed more concerned about Loki though and was trying to see what was going on with him. 

Steve felt the syringe in his hand but doubted that he would need to use it. 

"Bruce got medication to pretty girl," grumbled Hulk looking back at Darcy. 

Steve frowned. He looked at Coulson who was standing in the doorway with Fitz and Simmons, they also looked confused. 

"That's... That's good," whispered Darcy taking slow steps closer. "We can talk about that later. Why did you hit Loki?"

"Loki gave Bruce magic feel."

"'Magic feel'?" repeated Steve. 

"If I may," JARVIS interrupted. "Loki was giving Dr Banner a Moment of Clarity without him knowing it. Dr. Banner wasn't ready, got surprised, and Hulk came to his defence."

"Why would you something so stupid?" sighed Tony. 

He was moving Loki's body to a better position, Steve noticed, by only touching and pulling on his clothes. It was quite sweet. 

"Because..." Loki's voice was raspy and low. "Because he... needed to know."

"Know what?" Tony worried Loki's sleeve between his fingers. 

"Bruce feel bad that pretty girl sick," said Hulk sitting heavily down on the floor. "Bruce want pretty girl happy."

"Oh," Darcy breathed and hurried forward to hug the arm of the big green man. "But I am happy. I got you. And I got all my friends. I got to see space and Mars and it's so awesome. It doesn't matter if I don't get to see the end, the beginning has been the best ever."

Steve paled. 

"Darcy, are you sick?"

"Yes," she breathed as she let Hulk hold her. "But it's fine. It's fine."

The room filled with silence, the only sound being Loki slightly coughing as he tried to sit up.  
_  
"I hate to interrupt,"_ said Hill's voice from the intercom. _"But it seems like we are about to meet up with an alien ship."_

They all paused. 

"What the fuck?" said Tony and Steve for once agreed with that sentiment. 

_"Just get here, now."_

"Damn it," Tony pulled both hands back over his hair, taking a breath as he did. "Okay, Thor, you take Loki to the Med-bay. Darce, you got Hulk?"

"Yeah," she nodded. 

Tony nodded and got to his feet. He only hesitated for a moment as he looked down on Loki. Steve could see that he didn't want to leave neither Loki or Bruce in the current situation. It was sad, but he felt proud of Tony for being able to do it. 

He, Sam and Coulson followed as Tony ran out of the gym. Hill was continuing her report over their heads. 

_"It's too small to be a threat, probably a scout of some sort, but it's still coming at us. We tried calling it but there's no response."_

They all milled into the elevator. Tony seemed quite surprised that anyone had followed him, but didn't say anything. 

On the bridge Sam immediately switched places with Bucky at the co-pilot seat. Bucky walked over to the defence control board, Steve hurried to his side. He had had the general tour or the bridge and know enough to understand what most of the machines were trying to tell him. This particular one showed the protective force field around the Heidrun. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. 

Coulson placed himself at the scanner Steve remembered as looking over the perimeter, probably looking for other threats. Tony was looking at the incoming ship through the big front window as it was enhanced on a hologram there. 

It was indeed small, smaller than than their on small ships. Still it was coming towards them. 

"Do we know what it is?" asked Steve. 

Tony took up some more holograms that mostly consisted of moving shapes and changing numbers. Steve felt a bit useless, though he did move Bucky's hand away from creeping towards the weapons control. 

"I don't recognise it," Tony shook his head. "But since my knowledge of alien space crafts are limited to what the Chitauri left behind, the whatever-things SHEILD were mucking about with back on Earth, a few glimpses of Dark Elf tech on TV, and a bunch of hillbilly UFO-sightings, I'm not an expert."

It was still more than most people, guessed Steve. He had seen variations on all those things too but he had no idea to put them together to a common idea like Tony did. 

"Thor is on his way," said JARVIS. "He has just taken Loki to the Med-bay."

"How is he?"

"Dr Kingsley is starting the Freeze Machine now, sir."

"Is Clint out of the way? It's going to be cold in the air ducts."

"Mr. Barton has taken position in Tanngnorst if close combat will be needed."

Steve could hear Bucky grunt as if he was disappointed not to have thought of that idea himself. Again he felt the need to hold his friend back. Bucky gave him an irritated look but let him. 

"Tell him to stand by," Tony looked closer at the small ship. "There's something off about this guy. Does it have any weapons?"

"Not anything that would be effective against us," Hill shook her head. "It's like a small .22 calibre gun against Steve's shield."

 _"Tony,"_ Jane's voice came from one of the internal communication transmitters and a bunch of numbers started running on the monitors. _"My probe is picking up some strange readings."_

Tony looked them over with a frown on his face. 

"It's automated, shit! There's no one aboard. Some kind of automatic system, probably set off by our proximity."

"This close to Earth?" Steve looked up at the large screen. 

He had been trying to condition himself to no longer think of Earth's troubles as his troubles, but an alien threat towards the planet was a bit hard to ignore. It did admittedly not look at a threat at the moment, just a small ship, but looks could be deceiving. It could indeed be a scout, or a bomb. 

"Shall I fire, sir?" asked Bucky. 

Steve twitched. Things were really tense when Bucky started calling Tony 'sir'. Luckily Tony noticed and took on a more relaxed position and tone, although slightly forced. 

"Let's see to it's intentions first." Tony brought up several hologram keypads. "JARVIS, can we hack it?" 

"Possible, sir. But I need to create a closed off circuit so it won't hack us back through it."

"Do it."

Tony did something that looked like typing but was most likely even more complicated. Steve was pretty mean with a typewriter but computer keyboards were always a bit confusing to him, especially holographic ones. 

"It's not responding, sir."

 _"Tony,"_ said Jane's voice again. _"Thor says it's a Kree ship."_

Coulson made a strange noise. 

Steve remembered, some of the alien technology that SHEILD had found and used to resurrect Coulson with had been identified as Kree. There had been some other stuff mixed in too, but apart from what had been made on Earth, Kree had been the only one positively identified by their own live-in aliens. 

"Are they good guys or bad guys?" Steve asked hesitantly, it was strange that he had never bothered to ask before. 

Apparently it wasn't a yes-or-no question. There was some muffled noise and low arguing, it was Thor's and Loki's voices. Neither of them seems to be in the Med-bay anymore but stopped by Jane's navigation room on their way to the Bridge. Steve exchanged a worried look with Tony who then just rolled his eyes, shook his head, and went back to his typing. 

_"It seems..."_ said Jane _"...it's like it is with us humans, all depending on religious beliefs, local leadership, and personality."_

"That didn't help much," said Sam. 

"Great," sighed Tony. "Can either of them read the letters? I'm getting nothing here?"

 _"We can,"_ boomed Thor's voice a bit close to the microphone. _"But neither I nor Loki are familiar with using computers in the manner of 'hack'."_

"Damn it," Tony shook his head. "Well, get over here anyway, we'll do it letter by letter if we need to."

"How's Bruce?" asked Steve. "Maybe he can help."

"Still Hulked out," answered Coulson. 

Steve glanced at one of the small monitors. Hulk was still sitting on the floor of the gym. Darcy, Jemma and Natasha were there with him doing their best to calm him down. Strange thing was that the green giant actually looked very calm indeed.

He looked at Darcy, she had said that she was sick. Steve wondered what was wrong with her, from the tone and circumstances it had seemed very serious. She seemed fine now though, patting Hulk's arm and talking to the other women. 

"I can do it!" 

Everyone on the bridge turned to look at Leo Fitz who just stepped out of the elevator, looking like a scrawny British saviour with his blue lab coat flowing behind him. 

"I can do it," Leo repeated as he hurried towards Tony. 

Tony blinked, but then stepped aside. 

"Sure, Ensign Chekov, all yours."

Steve had a feeling it was another Star Trek reference, but kept his mouth quiet about it. He didn't want to be teased. He just gave Bucky half a shrug meaning 'later' when the guy cast him a questioning look. 

Leo was already typing away. Tony was intently looking over his shoulder. 

"That's amazing, how do you know what the symbols mean?"

"I don't know," Leo shook his head. "I just saw them and I s-suddenly knew. They are both syllables and words, like- like-..." he swallowed to catch his stutter. "...like in Chinese. But it reads to me like English. It's really strange. That word there reads like 'tho gha' but I see it s-straight off as the number nine."

"Alien ship disabled," reported JARVIS. 

"You got to teach me this," awed Tony, grabbing hold of Leo's arms and spinning him around to stare in his face. "That was so cool."

"Anthony," Loki's voice was harsh, Steve hadn't even seen him and Thor come in. "Step away from the boy, you are scaring him."

"Sorry," Tony let go and took a step back. "But it was."

Loki looked very tired and ruffed up, his hair was ruffled every which way and there was a small cut over his right cheekbone. Still, he didn't look like someone you should mess with. 

"Dr Fitz," Loki breathed. "May I have a word?"

For a moment Leo looked scared and looked to Tony, but then nodded and walked over to a corner which Loki was directing him towards. 

Steve followed Thor to Tony. The scientist was already making his computers make a glossary based on what ever Leo had did. Thor seemed fascinated about what was going on. 

"It's small enough for the loading bay..." Tony hummed as he looked out on the immobile ship. "Clint, tow it in."

 _"Sure thing,"_ said Clint over the comm. _"Towing creepy alien ship."_

"I'll send the bots to help you load it in. Don't let Butterfingers touch anything that looks important, I don't care if he has been practicing."

"Is it safe?" asked Steve hesitantly. "We don't really know what it is."

"Isn't that the point? Don't you want to know why a small alien ship was hiding behind Mars? We could perhaps stop an invasion of Earth. Just because we left them doesn't mean we can't protect them. I still got people that I love back there, you know."

Steve sighed. He couldn't argue with that, even though he recognised Tony's pretend innocent tone for what it was. 

"Just be careful." 

"Careful is my middle name," Tony grinned. 

"No," Steve shook his head. "Your middle name is Edward, and Edward is not a careful man."

Tony just rolled his eyes at him. Steve hated feeling like a mother hen, but somebody had to do it since no one else seemed to step up to the plate. If they by didn't have the good sense to worry then Steve was going to do it for him, and then he was going to tell Loki who had ways to make Tony worry. 

"I'll have you know I was named Edward after my grandfather, and he didn't become the best second generation Italian greengrocer in the Bronx during the prohibition era without being careful."

Steve had no response to that. Tony just grinned at him and looked around.

"Loki! Hey babe, can you let go of my little crewman? We have some work to do."

Loki had been letting Leo write something down in a notebook, when Tony called he looked almost guilty for a moment before clearly schooling his face to neutral. 

"I'm finished," Loki let the notebook magically disappear. "If you excuse me, I have to look in on Dr. Banner before I go to my rest. Thor, walk with me."

"Have you seen this?" Thor pointed to the translated symbols. "It is quite remarkable..."

"Thor!" barked Loki already inside the elevator. 

"Yes, Brother," Thor hurried to join him. 

"Don't call me that," said Loki before the doors closed around them. 

Tony sighed. 

"He's so sexy when he orders people about, it's such a pity he can't see it."

"You are a sick man, Stark," Hill shook her head. 

Steve sighed and walked back to Bucky. Unmanned ship or not, it was still alien and was potentially dangerous. It was best to set up some kind of plan on how to handle it. 

..............

Five hours since the greatest discovery ever made and Tony was nowhere closer to figuring it out. In fact he was going downhill in a shitty picnic basket. 

He was nowhere near getting into the alien ship that was standing in the loading bay looking like a misshaped steampunk minivan. 

Bruce was still inside his big green alter ego that was more interested in tiny shiny objects than particle physics. Jane was having nausea attacks and wasn't in any shape to help out. Loki had gone to sleep in the Freeze Machine for who knows how long. Thor had no knowledge what so ever in mechanics, Dummy had wandered off somewhere, and FitzSimmons were as stumped as Tony. 

Worst of all, the symbol language was impossible to figure out. Leo and JARVIS had done their best at translation but it wasn't working. They knew what the symbols meant and how they were pronounced, but when putting them together to make a language it was just gobeldigook. 

Also, Leo had no idea how he even knew the it in the first place. Jemma, who had always worked close with Leo, had no idea what it meant. 

The only tangible things they had been able to establish was that the ship was Kree (whatever that was), and it was possibly a drifting lifeboat of some kind. 

The three of them were sitting in the loading bay floor on some uncomfortable chairs (who packed these anyway?) surrounded by holographic images, notepaper, and useless tools. Steve and Bucky had long since bored of being protective and were now playing cards in the corner. 

Tony was seriously considering pulling his own hair, but his vanity thankfully stopped him from doing that. He glared at Butterfingers who was standing a few meters away recording everything on a small videocamera. 

The worst thing was when Clint casually walked in with a half eaten ham-sandwich in one hand and twirling an arrow in the other, took one look at everything and pointed the arrow at the ship. 

"You know..." he spoke while still chewing "...that it says 'pull to open' there?" 

"Oh," said Leo. "So i-it does, I missed that. My bad."

Tony screamed.


	14. Lies and truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki wakes to find not much have changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm about five chapters ahead in this story, feels a bit strange going back to this chapter now. this thing really has gotten life of its own. :)
> 
> Also, space continues to be fucking enormous.

Loki was dreaming of Anthony. They were having sex, but Loki couldn't feel it. Where ever he was roughly touched the feeling was just a small grace. The kisses were a bit harder, but the rest of his skin was numb. The only feeling between his legs was equal to what an ordinary scratch could do. He felt outside his own body. Even in his dream he realised he didn't have any tangible reference points for what he was doing. 

It felt oddly comforting. 

Anthony seemed to be enjoying himself though, and Loki guessed that that was the most important thing. Humans have such short lives, let's make them enjoy them. 

_I don't feel a thing_

_I can make you feel_

Loki turned to look at the dark figure beside him. It was The Other staring back at him from the darkness of his soul. Quickly he placed himself between the figure and Anthony, protecting his lover with his own body. 

_I can make you feel so good_

Then there was pain. Horrible, horrible pain. Loki screamed. 

He woke up, breathing hard.

The small window in front of his face, his only link to the world outside the machine, was fogged up. As he kept on breathing more calmly the fog evaporated. He sighed. He hadn't had a nightmare about The Other since he and Anthony got together. 

He was sure the monster was dead. But the concept of Death wasn't as reassuring when you yourself several times had walked the secret paths in Muspelheim that lead to the Kingdom of Hel. 

Loki woke from his dower musings when Kingsley's wrapped up face became visible in the window. The man made a questioning thumb up gesture. Loki nodded, he was fine. Kingsley nodded back and left. The computers must have noticed the abrupt awakening.

He tried to relax again, letting the cold take him in. He knew he was in his Jotun skin, it felt thick and safe. He wished he had known this feeling as a child, maybe things would be different then...

He sighed and wondered how Banner was fairing. Loki had concluded that the potion had forced the scientist's body to stay in the shape of the monster indefinitely. He was sure that he could fix it somehow, but as it were he concluded that for the moment it would keep Banner away from solving too many questions. 

Like how the potion combined with the emotional Clarity had given young Fitz the power of Allspeak. Oh, he had forgotten to check on Barton or Darcy. Did they have the Allspeak as well? Did the Hulk? That might be harder to keep hidden from the others until it was their turn. 

He must have fallen a sleep again because next time he woke up it was to the sound of the machine powering down. It was too early, he could feel it in his body. He had asked for three days, this was not even two. 

Anthony was standing outside waiting for him when he stepped out of the machine. Rogers, Kingsley, Hill, Barnes were there as well. The humans did not look happy with him. Something bad was up Loki concluded with an expertise in the matter. Time for some preemptive distraction. 

Loki stretched, letting his lean body work out some kinks, showing off some midriff as his shirt slightly rode up. He gave Anthony a happy sleepy smile, ignoring the other four, noticing that the man's eyes were roaming his body. 

"I had a dream about you," he yawned slightly. 

"You did?" Anthony's curiosity was his biggest weakness. "What was I doing?"

"I'm not sure I want to tell you," Loki casually scratched his scar under his shirt, hopefully awakening both guilt, pity, and flirting interest. "You might get the wrong impression."

"You had a sexy dream about me?" Anthony lit up, what ever anger he had felt before was gone from his expression. "I didn't even know you could do that."

"Idiot, of course I can. Just because I don't have any desire for sex doesn't mean I don't have some knowledge about it. I read books, I watch movies. It was a dream. As I'm sure helmsman Hill has had dreams about men, even though she does not prefer them when she is awake."

"I usually call them horrible nightmares," said Hill with narrowed eyes. 

"I never said you had to enjoy the dreams, just that you are able to have them." He turned back to Anthony. "Sorry. I didn't feel anything. Good or bad."

"I don't care," Anthony shrugged and smiled his sweet sappy smile. "Who cares if it was neutral? You still had a sexy dream about me. I can live on that for days."

"Okay!" Rogers called out in exasperation. "Too much information! Tony, remember why we came here! Remember Bruce? Remember Darcy, and the ship? Remember those?!"

Much had seemed to happen in two days.

"Yes," Anthony pulled himself together. "Right. Oh, I always wanted to say this! Loki, you got some 'splaining to do!" 

Loki had no idea what was going on, apparently some kind of known reference because both Kingsley and Hill groaned. 

"Eh? Eh? Do you get it?" Anthony looked between Rogers and Barnes who just stared back at him. "Come on, 'I love Lucy'! That's your era!"

"I spent the 1950s killing for the KGB and Steve was frozen in 1944," Barnes deadpanned. "We were too busy for American TV-shows."

"You still knew the reference, I bet you and Stalin sat up late watching re-runs before you killed him off," Anthony have the metal arm a juvenile knock. "Steve, I'm very disappointed in you."

"Tony!" Rogers gave a desperate urge. 

"Right, right." He took a breath. "Loki, three things, why is Bruce still hulked out; how are Darcy's tumours almost gone; and why, _why,_ is Clint able to learn something that I can't?"

The last thing seemed to really bother him. It seemed that Barton had the Allspeak after all. It wasn't a bad side effect, since they were going to meet species and people that didn't speak English. But then again it was hard to explain how the ability to understand and speak all languages would come on so sudden. 

 

"Let me look at them," he sighed. 

Rogers held up a hand. 

"Not until you tell us what you did with them. They said you gave them a Moment of Clarity, but both Bucky and I got it before. It doesn't work like that. It's an insight, not a change."

"It's nothing. I'll take care of it."

"Loki," Anthony sighed. "Babe, Angelface, you know I love you, but when I promised not to lie to you again I kind of hoped that it would go both ways. If you have done something to my friends, then I need to know. You..." He took a breath. "You can't stay on this ship if you are doing something to us without our knowledge."

Loki blinked. Here he was, trying to give them a longer life without damaging their minds, and he was failing. Yes, he was deceiving them slightly and momentarily, but that was necessary to give him more time with them. 

"Y-you would leave me?" 

"Oh no, oh god, I didn't mean... Steve?"

"Look," Rogers took a step closer which made Loki a bit uncomfortable. "Tony is our leader, he have to look out for everyone aboard, so you can't expect too much special treatment just because you are together. You are up to something, you can't deny that."

This was getting out of hand. It would be impossible to administer the potion slowly now. No time for observation or research. Loki had to do something drastic. 

"I need to talk to Thor first."

"Thor's in it with you?" Rogers frowned. "He pretended he didn't know what was going on."

"Story of my life," Loki pouted. "Can I talk to him before you throw me of the ship?"

"We are not throwing you of the ship!" protested Anthony showing Loki to lead the way out of the room and to the corridor. "I don't know why I said that. You know I'd come with you if it come to that."

"You would?" 

"Babe, I'm so invested in you now it's ridiculous. I'll pack my bags, pack you into Grinder, and we'll travel the universe together. Or as long as our supplies hold out, which I guess isn't that long..."

"Tony..." sighed Rogers. 

Loki couldn't help himself but to kiss him. It was a longer kiss than he was entirely comfortable with but it was he felt was needed for the occasion, even if it was in front of four other people. 

"All right, Stark," sighed Hill. "Turn off the damn charm. We have business and don't need any more distractions."

"Maria, you're one awesome lady," Anthony sighed without looking away from Loki. "But, you are literally tainting one of the best moments of my life right now." He sighed again. "Fine, let's go see Thor,"

Despite the circumstances Loki felt quite happy. He was fairly well rested and Anthony's revelations had made him feel a bit giddy. Also he had come up with an idea that just might work. 

They passed by the robot Dummy on their way. It was holding Banner's dog on a leash. Anthony patted both of them as they passed. 

"Dummy's been such a good helper," he told proudly. "He's been helping Bruce out with all kinds of things."

"Like bringing him snacks," said Hill. 

"Hulk's a big boy."

Thor was in the common room and so was everybody else, except from Wilson and Barton who were joining them via screen from the Bridge. Jane, Romanoff and Hulk were the only ones sitting down, the women on the sofa, and Hulk on the floor so not to hit his head on the light fixtures. 

"What is this?" Loki asked, quoting Anthony on several occasions. "An intervention?"

Next thing he knew Darcy was hugging him. It felt close enough to one of Frigga's hugs that he didn't directly act out towards her, and it was short enough that he didn't need to push her away. She smiled as she stepped back. 

"Thank you," she said. "It's a shitty thing what you did to Bruce, but still, thank you so much."

"You are welcome," Loki smiled back. "And I'm sorry about Banner, it wasn't meant to work that way."

"What way was it meant to work?" asked Rogers. "And what was it?"

Loki took a breath, he needed to play this right, but worst of all: Thor needed to get what he was trying to do and play along. His backup plan would otherwise be to just magically stun everyone, administer potion with Clarity to all of them, and hope for the best. A bad plan since his stun wouldn't reach Wilson and Barton on the Bridge. Also their enhanced feelings would most likely hold some anger towards him. 

"I already knew back on Earth that Darcy was ill," he lied. "And that there was nothing I nor anyone could do about it there... But there is a medicine on Asgard. It is not allowed outside the realm because it's very sacred." He looked at Thor. "I stole it." 

Thor blinked but then caught on. 

"Brother!" Thor was off cue and clearly over acted his gasp. "That is outrageous."

Everyone in the room turned to look at the big man in disbelief. Loki smirked. Thor blushed. 

"You might talk like Shakespeare, Point Break," Anthony shook his head. "But leave the acting to Loki." He turned to Loki again. "Go on, Babe, you stole the holy medicine and then what?"

"I wanted to administer it to her directly, but I did not know it's mental effects on humans... Apparently it comes with a set of new language skills."  
_  
"You tested it on me and Leo first?"_ asked Barton from the screen. "That's fucked up, dude."

"Why us?" Fitz asked. "We weren't sick."

"Your hand," Loki gestured to it. "You would partly have lost the use of it if I didn't help you. And Barton, Barton still had his headaches and nightmares that he made me give back." He sighed. "I just wanted to help, because... Because I have come to know you all as... my friends."

He was laying it on a bit thick at the end, but he knew it would work better that way. The most important thing was to distract them from any association between the potion and the Clarity. Romanoff gave him a look. Loki sighed. 

"Fine, some of you are less friendlier to me than others, but you are all Anthony's friends."

"What about Bruce?" Romanoff asked. 

"I... I got overconfident."

It pained him to admit a mistake, even if it was a lie to cover his true intentions. 

"Well, that I do believe," laughed Anthony. "You got hubris running out your ears." 

Hulk made a gruffing sound as if he thought Loki should know better than to mess with him. 

_"I have been having less headaches,"_ admitted Barton grudgingly. _"But why didn't you tell us?"_

"You would never had let me, and Darcy would still be ill."

At least that was the truth. Loki looked carefully around the room. It seemed that he had gotten them on his side, at least no one was glaring at him. Darcy was wiping away tears, Jane was holding her hand and crying as well, though Loki guessed that was mostly because of hormones. 

"Sooo..." Anthony cleared his throat. "This medicine then, it makes you understand another language? It's sounds too much like a sci-fi plot device to me."

"It's the Allspeak," said Thor proudly. "The first language. It's universal. It's origin is even forgotten to even our on Asgardian scholars, but its roots is of pure magic." 

"O-kay..." Anthony gave him a incredulous look. "Can I have it?"

Loki smiled, this was turning out better than planned. It was a bit too soon for comfort though. 

"Tony!" shouted Rogers, Hulk grunted. 

"What? I'm tired working on that stupid alien lifeboat having _Clint_ as an interpreter! I feel like a stone age man trying to reverse-engineer a Honda Civic with a flint tool. There are things in there that I don't trust to touch if I don't understand it myself! I need it!"

"There are more important things right now. Like how to get Bruce back! You need him as well, don't you?"

"Hulk tired being big," agreed Hulk with a pout. "Always hit head. Not allowed to smash. Can't do science."

"He's consuming almost four times Bruce's share," noted Coulson with an apologetic tone. "It's beginning to be a problem."

"I know," Anthony sighed. "There are priorities, obviously, but I still want it."

"I think we all need to get it," said Romanoff. "We are going to meet up with aliens sooner or later, we need to be able to communicate with them." She put her hand on her belly. "Pumpkin is definitely going to need it."  
_  
"You want to give it to the baby?"_ asked Clint, sounding slightly shocked. 

"This isn't a B-movie, Clint," Romanoff snapped. "Not every alien automatically speaks English. Apparently not even Thor speaks English! The medicine is only forbidden to humans because it's sacred, right? Like for religious reasons? Loki tested it, on you. It was a shitty way of testing it, but it's safe. Right?"

"Perfectly safe," lied Loki smoothly. 

Thor nodded, at least he could do that right. 

On one hand Loki was glad he had found a way to manipulate them into trusting him, on the other hand he suddenly had become even more responsible for Romanoff's and Barton's child. If some decades from now the child was a warlord, or even just a bad person, would it be his fault? Would he need to stand by its side like some kind of a godlike conscience? 

That would surely turn out great, especially since his own conscience was working so well...

Rogers cleared his throat.

"I think we should discuss this later. First we need to help Bruce."

"I see what I can do," Loki slowly walked up to the beast, stopping a few paces away. 

He remembered far to well the two latest times he had been this close. Hulk growled at him. 

"We been trying to help him for the last two days," explained Kingsley. "Massage, soothing music, guided relaxation, even the emergency syringe. He just fell asleep and didn't change."

Loki looked the beast over. He was wrecking his mind over how he would be able to do this. He was good at bringing the bad side out of other people, but bringing the good out? That was an whole other question. 

He could hear the others talking behind him. Mostly they were discussing the benefits of knowing the Allspeak against being magically altered. Jane's children would probably have the ability from birth because of Thor. 

Darcy came up to stand beside him. 

"I know what you're going to say," she said with a low voice.

"Yes," he faked confidence. 

"I thought of it too," she glanced at Kingsley who was currently taking Hulk's pulse, and lowered her voice even more. "Everyone is trying to calm him down, but what if he needs to go the other way? Get riled up, I mean..."

"Are you suggesting...?" Loki felt a bit nauseous. 

"No," she hissed and looked back at the others. "I'm not doing _that_ to him, no way. I'm attracted to Bruce, Hulk's just a sweetheart." 

Loki blinked at this. 

"No," he hissed back. "I asked if you were suggesting that we make him really angry and let him work through it."

This time she blinked.

"That was exactly what I was suggesting."

"Good."

"Good." Darcy pushed some of her hair back.

In fact, Loki's mind had gone there, but nobody needed to know that. Anthony was a bad influence on him. And then there had been that stupid dream. He shook his head at the madness of it all. 

"Any ideas?" asked Rogers coming up to them. 

"Yes," Loki smiled back at him. "We are going to throw Dr Banner out into space,"

Then he snapped his fingers and teleported the Hulk to the airlock, this time for real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note: not all asexuals have sexdreams, far from it, personally I haven't had one for several years (amazing considering how much smut fan fiction I read), but I think Loki's experience is a good description of one.


	15. Is it my turn yet?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is a bit ticked because Loki haven't given him the potion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try to keep the chapters equally long, usually when I hit 3000 words I start rounding them off, that's why cliffhangers sometimes happen. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, your likes and comments are much appreciated <3

The Mark sixty-nine suit folded itself away from Tony's body. He had spent the last five hours outside on the haul of the Heidrun working on the engines. He was tired but in a good way and would have liked to have stayed out a bit longer, but he had been given strict time restrictions and was being rudely forced to take longer breaks. 

Bruce was waiting for him as he got inside. It was Bruce's third day without an 'incident'.  
The end of the last one hadn't been pretty. Loki had teleported the Hulk away from the common room. Problem was that Loki hadn't told them _where_ he was teleporting the Hulk. 

There was a strict procedure in place for Bruce's safety since they couldn't just push him right out into space. The rule was to decompress the airlock first to see if it was enough, and only open the hatch if the ship's structure was in danger. Sure, Hulk would survive out there in space for about a minute, but if he turned back to Bruce that time would decrease rather rapidly. 

Also there was the element of speed to consider. They were moving pretty fast and anything left behind was going to be left behind, forever. 

The procedure was therefore: Always Airlock First. That gave them time to slow down and for someone to run to the airlock, put on a moderated spacesuit and get in there to assist if needed. There was also a helmet inside the airlock that would automatically attach itself to Bruce's head, like that of the Iron Man, and give him about five minutes of oxygen. 

Loki had teleported Hulk to the airlock, thankfully, but the couple of seconds passing before Sam confirmed it was a few of the most terrifying minutes in Tony's life. Loki had explained that he hadn't wanted to give any warning because it would make Hulk angrier and burn through it faster. 

Still, it was pretty shitty. 

Three days on and Bruce was still a bit jumpy and was never seen without his stretchy pants. He looked like an ageing nineties rapper who had turned to teaching physics at collage but still wanted to keep In touch with his roots. Tony had refrained from telling Bruce this, mostly because of the jumpiness.

Also, his brown eyes were now permanently opal green. It sometimes gave the impression that he was radiating from the inside, especially when he was exited like he was now. Tony didn't dare to imagine how they would look when in anger. 

"I think I found something," said Bruce excitedly as Tony stepped out of the suit. 

They were two and a half weeks away from Saturn, the planet was looming in the distance like a ringed golf ball. They were not going to get close enough to launch a probe, but they were going to pass by the moon Rhea within two hundred and fifty thousand kilometres. Tony had showed Loki a simulation, Loki had typically not been impressed. 

"Isn't a bit too early to get any good readings?" 

"What? No, I wasn't talking about that," Bruce shook his head. "Though Jane is glued to the telescope. No, I meant the alien ship..."

"Lifeboat," corrected Tony. 

"Exactly," Bruce grinned. "Come on, you need to see this."

Tony doubted it, he had lost a bit of interest when he found out he couldn't understand as much as Bruce and Leo. Also ever since he had come to the conclusion that it was empty and probably just piece of wreckage that never had been used, the novelty had worn off. 

Loki hadn't given him the magic medicine yet. Loki had in fact not given it to anyone! Three days! What was that magnificent bastard waiting for? Tony had asked but was getting no answer. 

So he was still reliant on a translator. At least Bruce was a better one than Clint. Though the further they got with the database the more it was clear that it was just a very basic one, which in Tony's mind meant 'boring'. There was room enough on the servers to download enormous amounts of information but no one had bothered to do it. Whatever had happened to the mothership must have been very sudden and unexpected. 

At first Tony had thought it might be from any of the ships that he blew up in the Battle of New York, but Loki had assured him that it wasn't. The lifeboat was without a doubt of Kree origin, and Chitauri were not technology scavengers. 

The best they themselves could scavenge from the lifeboat had so far been a decent star map from outside the solar system, a couple of possible future engine and life support updates, and the strange platinum-alloy that the haul was made of. It wasn't anything to scoff over, but it could have been better. 

There had been some emergency supplies like dried food that was worth analysing, but that was yet again boring from a technical point of view. Jemma had carried those away for testing, she was a biological engineer after all and liked that sort of stuff. 

"I looked over the haul," said Bruce. "I think I've found out what the different scorch marks are."

"Cool," Tony was actually a bit curious about that. "I love it when you go all 'CSI Outer Space' on us."

Bruce gave him an amused look. 

As they walked towards the loading bay Bruce had to stop twice to pull up his stretchy pants. It didn't seem to bother him too much, but he gave a few irritated sighs. The second time they stopped Tony looked towards one of the side corridors and noticed the lower part of Loki's body standing on a maintenance latter, the top part of him was hidden inside an open vent in he ceiling. 

Usually he would have enjoyed the view, he did so now as well but it didn't stop him from being curious. 

"Hey, babe," Tony called, walking over to him. "What's up?"

"Nothing" Loki bent his knees and looked out of the vent down at him. "I was just talking to JARVIS."

"What about?" 

He was proud that he mostly managed not to look at Loki's ass. 

"Nothing in particular," Loki climbed down the latter. "Just some maintenance."

"You don't know how to do maintenance," Tony looked up into the vent, there was an access panel there. 

"Rude," Loki glared down at him, damn that height difference. 

"I guided him, sir," JARVIS supplied. "It was just a simple adjustment to the hardware so I just asked Loki as he was passing by."

Tony frowned. He knew that JARVIS emotional update made him more prone to spontaneity. Asking someone passing by for help instead of calling Tony, who must have been outside at the time, seemed perfectly logical. Still, he wanted to go up there and take a look for himself. 

On the other hand, that would indicate that he didn't trust Loki. He simply had to come back later and check it out. By the look Loki gave him Tony knew that Loki knew that he would. Tony smiled a challenge. Loki ignored it. 

"Tony?" Bruce asked behind him. 

"Right," Tony sighed. "Bruce found something on the lifeboat. Do you want to come with?"

"Very well," Loki shrugged. "I guess I could do that."

"Don't exert yourself, babe."

"I won't."

Tony rolled his eyes and started walking towards the loading bay again. Loki was walking calmly by his side, too calmly. He felt bad for being this paranoid, especially since the both of them after the incident a few days ago had had a very serious talk about trust.

During that talk Loki had confessed to a very crazed plan to try teleporting the whole ship. 

Tony had yelled at him how incredibly dangerous that was. He could kill himself, the ship, and everyone aboard. All because of being impatient. Tony was impatient too, but even he with his reckless nature could see the foolishness of that plan. 

Yes, they were at the moment only traveling point oh one percent of one percent of light speed, it was still four times faster than anything human-made had ever gone before. Anything human-made then being the Iron Man suit with Tony inside, thank you very much. 

Space was just too fucking big. The three stars of Alpha Centauri, the closest other stars to their own sun, was almost four and a half light years away. 

Still, Loki had grudgingly agreed to run every crazy idea passed someone before trying it out. 

It wasn't an ideal agreement since Loki could chose to confide in someone as crazy as himself, but Tony couldn't demand being the only one privy to Loki's every thought, he wasn't that kind of boyfriend. And anyway he hoped that after their talk he could trust Loki to tell him if something really mattered. Like if something was going to put the ship and crew in danger. 

"Sir," JARVIS announced. "I believe I have created a near to complete database over the Kree language."

From just a simple maintenance? Tony thought to himself. That must have been a hell of a glitch. 

"'Near to complete'?" asked Bruce as they entered the elevator. 

"At least from what is on the Lifeboat's database, Dr Banner. I'm certain there are words of more poetic or profane nature that are avoided when programming a computer. Not everyone has have the benefit of being programmed by Tony Stark."

Tony smirked at this. JARVIS could indeed swear up a storm if needed, then again Tony had only been seventeen when he constructed the first base algorithm. Though as it were he had actually learned some of those words himself from the original human Jarvis. 

"What are you smiling about?" asked Loki. 

"Just some nostalgia," Tony sighed, but then gave Loki a slight glare. "I bet if I knew the language I could make up some profanity to fill out some of the gaps."

"If you are implying that speaking the Allspeak is the same as speaking Kree then you are wrong. Kree is one language, Allspeak is all the languages."

"What does it matter, 'cause I have none of it!"

Loki just rolled his eyes and looked away. Tony huffed. 

The best excuse Loki had told him for not giving him the magic medicine yet was that the potion had to be prepared in a special traditional way. Tony wasn't sure he bought that because Loki wasn't much for tradition. 

Another excuse was that he didn't know how it would affect the hole in Tony's chest containing the arc-reactor. That was a more viable excuse, yes, but not enough to deter Tony's mind from wanting it. 

Also, it didn't explain why Steve couldn't get it, the guy was an epitome of health. There were too many questions and Loki smoothly avoided them all. 

They stepped out onto the loading bay. The Lifeboat was more or less in pieces spread out over the floor. It looked pretty neat and orderly at the moment, but if they should loose the artificial gravity, or make an emergency stop, they would be in trouble. Either of those scenarios were highly unlikely, but the chance was always there. 

Jemma was already there, she seemed to be doing some cataloging while You and Butterfingers was doing the heavy lifting and disassembling. She joined them as Bruce walked over to one of the hologram workstations. The bots continued their work. 

"Look at this," Bruce brought up an image of the lifeboat in its original form. "There are four types of scorch marks overlapping. I set them up in red, green, blue, and yellow."

He made a move with his hand and the image of the lifeboat parted in three different ones, each with different markings. Tony could clearly see the differences. 

"This one looks like an explosion," said Jemma, pointing to the first one, the red one. "I've seen those before."

"Yes," Bruce pointed as well. "An explosion within an atmosphere. Probably the one when the lifeboat was launched into space." He moved on to the next image. "Now, these two are more interesting. These are a form of drag marks. The lifeboat has much likely been caught in the exhaust of a big passing ship and simply been dragged along by the forces."

"And it happened twice," Tony felt a new kind of reverence for the thing. "It must have traveled halfway across the galaxy like that. Amazing, it could have burnt, crashed, or drifted into a star, or anything..."

"Yes, but in between that, the blue one here..." He pointed. "This is by an asteroid emitting some kind of gas."

"Quite an adventure for a chunk of metal. We're was it going next?"

"It was probably on its way to drift into a star," said Bruce thoughtfully. "The Sun. But we caught it."

"I have been taking a new look at the onboard computer, sir," JARVIS interrupted. "I'm now able to translate most of the text."

The hologram changed a little as many of the symbols turned from illegible to words and numbers. It was cool, but not as cool as if Tony had been able to read it for himself. 

"Look," Jemma pointed and made a part of the hologram larger. "It's the life support controls and the automatic log. This is brilliant! Do you know what this means? Clues on Kree biology!"

"I saw that before," admitted Bruce. "But the file was to big to look through. I was meaning to put Darcy on translation. But if JARVIS can do it now, so much better."

"Yeah," Tony glared at Loki. "'Better'. It would be even better if I could do it."

Loki ignored him. 

"According to my newfound knowledge," continued JARVIS. "I gather the initial explosion happened about a year and a half ago."

"You mean..," Tony felt a bit of panic push on his chest. "About the time of Loki's invasion?"

"It was not _my_ invasion," Loki crossed his arms. "And this is purely coincidental."

"Yes," agreed Bruce. "There is not even a smidgeon of radiation on this thing that could indicate Earth nuclear weapons."

Tony felt quite relived by this, but the bad feeling in his gut had already taken root. 

"I need some air," he took a deep breath and started walking back towards the elevator. "Good work, Brucie. Keep it up."

"Sorry!" called Bruce after him. 

"It's nothing," Tony laughed. "It's just me."

Stupid post-traumatic fucking stress bullshit. Months of nothing and now this? What he hell was wrong with him? 

Loki had followed him inside the elevator, he didn't notice until the doors closed. 

"Do... Do you want to hold my hand?" 

"I always love to hold your hand," Tony smiled bravely while trying to regulate his breathing. "But I don't want to get to the point that I can't let go. Just talk to me for now. Tell me something funny."

"Like what?" 

"Just something funny, anything." 

He sat down on the elevator floor. Probably not the best place for someone who needed some room to breathe, but fuck it. He liked it here. Tony rubbed his face. 

"You know the story about Thor wearing a wedding dress?" Loki had sat down next to him. "It's partly true."

Tony topped rubbing and looked at him from between his fingers, Loki smiled. 

"It was part of a series of drunken bets that went too far. We were young and Thor was even more foolish in those days. It all ended with him burning the tavern down, and then him going back inside to rescue a very angry cat that refused to budge from its hiding place."

"Did you wear the bridesmaid dress?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Loki teased. 

"I do actually. I bet you looked really hot." 

"You have clearly never seen an Asgardian bridesmaid's dress."

Tony already felt better. He took a few more deep breaths before getting to his feet. 

They were on the sleeping quarters floor, it was a good place as any to get off. A nap in his own bed didn't sound too bad right about now. He felt a bit shaky, but he was definitely getting back to his old self. It had only been a small attack, and Loki's story had helped. 

"You know, my love," Loki said slowly. "I'm wondering if not a Moment of Clarity could help you with your sudden bouts of anxiety."

"You think so?" Tony didn't feel he was thinking too clear at the moment. 

They stepped inside their room. Tony began removing the under-suit he was wearing. Loki hurried over to the bed to hold up the covers. 

"It's worth a try isn't it?" Loki looked him over with a worried face. 

"I guess..." Tony lay down on the bed and let Loki tuck him in. "Do you really think it would work?"

"Yeah... Oh..."

He looked like a thought just struck him and was hesitating over it. 

"What?"

Loki even more hesitatingly bit his lower lip. He looked really cute like that. 

"I was actually going to give you the potion... It's ready now. But I don't know if I should give you both it and the Clarity at the same time..."

The potion! The magical potion that would give him the power to speak all the languages at the same time! This made Tony sit up. 

"I can handle it."

"I'm not sure... Mixing magic like that..."

"Since when did you start to worry about using too much magic?" Tony gave a short laugh. "Just a few days ago you were ready to move the whole ship."

"I guess you are right," Loki sighed. "I'm just a bit cautious when it comes to you, my love."

"I like it when you call me that," Tony grinned. "It's way better than 'infant'."

"Don't get used to it. It's just because you are weak right now."

"And infants are strong?"

"Shut up, mortal."

"Well, it was good while it lasted."

Loki rolled his eyes. The next moment he was holding a small spoon in front of Tony's lips, it must have been magicked there because Tony hadn't seen it before. 

"That's it?" he asked. 

Loki nodded. He looked tense, as if he wanted to shove the spoon in Tony's mouth, but also like he wanted to throw it away. Tony leaned forward and took the spoon himself before Loki could even think of pulling it away. 

It tasted of honey, apples, and that fancy sweet liquor that Howard never let him taste and that he never had been able to find again. A warm feeling was spreading in his chest, hugging the reactor, making the metal and power source feel even more like a part of him. 

He felt like he could do anything. Beat anyone. Lay the galaxy down under his genius. 

The next moment Loki touched his temples and there was a sudden flash of bright light before his eyes. The thoughts of grandeur slipped away from him, they didn't disappear, they only seemed less important. 

He felt good, and then really, really bad. 

"Anthony?" Loki sat down on the bed. 

"Oh my god..." Tony stared at him. 

"You are speaking it," Loki smiled. "You are speaking the Allspeak. Are you happy now?"

"What the fuck have I done?"

.......


	16. Depressions and bad choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki is reaching the end of his rope...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is really having a life of its own. I'm about five chapters ahead and it's hard to put action in such a slowpaced story, I just have to rely on cliffhangers I guess...
> 
> Also, fuck, space is so big. The math I'm forced to do for somewhat accurate distances, speeds, and timelines are ridiculous.

"Is that it?" Loki looked at the big striped orange ball. 

He admitted that it looked somewhat impressive. 

"Yes, it is." Jane said as she rotated the projection that she had put together from several telescope images. "That's Jupiter. Largest planet in the solar system. We will, by the way, get a fantastic view of Saturn from it as well. And..." She moved the image. "This is Rhea, Saturn's moon. After the engine conversation we'll be passing close by it."

"Why are you more interested in that rock than Jupiter?"

"I am absolutely interested in Jupiter," Jane waived her hand dismissively. "But it's kind of old news, we have been able to see Jupiter with our own eyes from Earth for thousands of years. I can look out the window now and see at it. Rhea is basically a new discovery."

"But it's even smaller than the last rock!" Loki was getting desperate. "And it's grey! It's not even round!"

"You can't compare it to Mars, I agree," Jane smiled fondly. "But just imagine the possibilities. I can't believe it!" she gushed and started counting on her fingers. "Only two more months to Jupiter, we wait three days for the new engines, and then twenty days to Rhea..."

"Wait! Are we're slowing down _again_ to take samples _after_ the engine conversation?!"

This wasn't good, not good at all. Loki had been putting all his hopes on the stupid moon, all the scientists was so excited about it. He had been hoping that it would bring Anthony some joy. Who would find joy in that dull boulder? And they were going to slow down to look at it? Again?

Anthony had been in bed for a week, a week! Count them, seven days! On the third day they had been forced to move him to the Med-bay. He barely rose to eat or go to the bathroom. Sometimes someone, usually Steve or Thor, even had come and carry him to the bathroom.

It was all Loki's fault.

"Look," Jane sighed. "I know you are worried, I am too. But I'm sure he's going to like it once we get there. This thing is awesome. It's got methane ice!"

Loki shook his head. He had rushed things. He had not studied the others enough. He should have done some more tests, considered Anthony's mood more. He had given in to pressure. All he wanted was to see Anthony happy. Now he had broken the only person in millennia, including his adopted mother, that truly had accepted him for what he was.

"Show him the image, it's really cool. The telescopes has really pulled through on this one. I think if we adjust them really good we can even see past Pluto's orbit. Not that it's much to see out there..."

Kingsley and Wilson said it was a deep depression, only Loki and Thor knew it was the Clarity. Loki shouldn't have given it so soon after one of Anthony's episodes. But it hadn't really been an episode, just the start of one...

Anthony himself had said nothing. At least nothing that made sense to why this was happening. Whatever rambles he made usually consisted by repeats of 'what have I done?', 'I'm so sorry', and 'what's wrong with me?'. Sometimes he cried.

"I've also got some really great closeups on Jupiter's storm, the moon Titan, and Saturn's rings as well. I'm sure he'll like those."

Loki was at his wits' end. Humans were crazy and he was in love with their leader. 

He had even began holding Anthony in his arms until his skin crawled and his anxiety skyrocketed and he had to let go. It seemed to work momentarily, but not for long. Thankfully Anthony was sleeping most of the time, the guilt of being forced to let go wasn't as bad then.

"Eighty-four days." He could hear Jane greedily whisper at the projection of the small ugly rock as he left the room. "Eighty-four more days and you are all mine.

How could humans with short lives be more patient than near-immortals?

Jane obviously had momentarily forgotten that in about sixty days she'd have two babies to take care of. But, then again, Jane wasn't the type of person to let that stand in her way. There wasn't a shortage of babysitters aboard. It would probably become Loki's task. 

But Loki couldn't wait sixty days, even less eighty-four days. He doubted he could wait even one more day. 

.......

"How is he?" asked Steve sitting down in one of the chairs next to Kingsley's desk.

He indicated the small room were Tony was tucked into one of the four med-bay beds. Sam and Loki were sitting by either his sides looking at a hologram image of what looked like a pockmarked rock. Loki was valiantly trying his best to pretend he enjoyed it, but it didn't seem to affect Tony's mood.

"Which one?" Kingsley sighed and shook his head. "It's the worst case of PTSD I've seen. Granted, I'm not a psychologist, my specialty is cutting people open, but I can still say that neither Tony nor Loki is doing any good."

Steve knew better than to be impatient, he had visited too many veterans' hospitals for that. But he was worried. Seven days were seven days and they were on a deadline.

Bruce, Jemma, Leo, and Jane were doing their best keeping Tony's work afloat, while putting their owns on hold, but neither of them were qualified to go outside the ship. If they weren't in the middle of a crisis Steve would have been worried that Tony apparently was doing the work equivalence of four people.

But they were in a crisis, and if the engines weren't completed before they reached Jupiter there was a worst case scenario were they just started drifting.

The best case scenario was that they would leave the solar system in about two years instead of five months. That was if they got the greenhouse up and running. Of course Thor wouldn't let that happen, he would travel by hammer to get help, but still... It felt a bit like a defeat.

"I have him on anti-depressant," continued Kingsley, tapping his bandaged fingers on the table. "Not the really strong stuff yet, because changes can take time and we have limited resources, but we are getting there."

"Wouldn't..." Steve leaned in and lowered his voice. "Wouldn't that medicine of Loki's help?"

"I've asked him, but he doesn't want to talk about it. My guess..." Kingsley glanced over to Loki and lowered his voice even more "...is that he's already given it to him. Either it didn't work, or... or it caused this."

Steve blinked. He hadn't considered that. It was impossible for a layman to know if Tony spoke Allspeak or English. No wonder Loki looked so distraught. So much for a miracle cure. He looked up as Sam joined them by the desk, taking a seat on the other chair next to Steve.

"Jane's images didn't help," he shook his head. "It strange to see Tony Stark not being excited about science."

"You're doing a good job."

"I used to lead support groups for soldiers coming back from war," he smiled sadly. "This is a bit over my pay-grade."

"What can you say?"

"He's pretty messed up. I don't know. It's been a week and there's not really been any sign of change. He won't talk but he obviously feel bad about something. And what ever it is Loki doesn't know about it, he seems as frustrated to find out as we are."

"Is not a flashback, or something like that?"

"I don't think so," Sam shook his head. "He doesn't seem to be reliving anything. I think it's more a current situation that's bothering him."

Steve tried to think of anything resent that could have happened. They had gone through this before though. Tony's every step the days leading up to the breakdown a week ago had been gone over. JARVIS had shown them the footage, the only images missing were the bathroom breaks and a few times in the bedroom where the cameras were turned off for privacy. There was nothing out of the ordinary. At least of what counted as ordinary for Tony Stark on a huge spaceship.

Tony divided his time quite equally between the outside engines, his mechanics lab, the small alien lifeboat, everyday ship maintenance, some physical exercise at the gym, and Loki. He mostly ate and hung out with the others on the go. The engine reconstruction seemed to be going well. There had been no accidents or bursts of radiation enough to explain the change.

The theory about the medicine seemed more and more likely. Loki hadn't given it to anyone since it was revealed that he had it. Perhaps he was scared something like this could happen again.

"Rogers?"

"Yes?" Steve turned to see Loki standing in the doorway.

Loki looked at him with sad eyes. Steve knew far too well the terrible feeling to have much power and still be powerless. It could drive a man to do unreasonable things. Frankly, Steve was surprised that Loki had lasted a full week without doing something drastic.

He guessed that they didn't have much time left before Loki broke.

"I hate to ask you, but can you help Anthony to the bathroom?"

"Sure, absolutely."

"Thank you."

Steve got up and walked over to the bed, it wasn't the first time he had helped Tony with this.

"Come on, Tony," he sighed, stepping over to the side of the bed. "Let's go to the bathroom."

The man was unshaven but clean. Bruce and Clint and managed to shower him the day before. Clint had lamented about it greatly the rest of the evening, but said it was good practice for when he became a dad. Nat had shut him up by shoving a piece of cake in his mouth.

Tony moved like a robot, like the movement of rising to his feet was something programmed into him. He slowly started walking. At least he moved by himself. Steve guided placed a hand on his elbow to guide him, Tony let him.

By a slight fault in construction there was no door in the adjacent wall separating the Med-bay and the bathroom. They had to walk about ten steps down the corridor outside to get between the rooms.

"Don't worry, Anthony," said Loki following them out. "I have this under control."

That sounded ominous. Steve saw nothing in Tony that indicated that he had heard him. He looked back at Loki but he was already walking away, and not back to the Med-bay. Steve wanted to follow but Tony was already walking the other way.

"Don't do anything stupid!" he called after Loki, but knew the guy wouldn't listen to him.

Usually he would call on Bucky, but Bucky was co-piloting on the Bridge. Reluctantly he caught up to Tony. Steve hoped at least JARVIS was keeping an eye on Loki, though the thought didn't calm him much. Maybe he should call Thor...

They walked into Phil in the doorway coming out from the bathroom. He was looking at his phone.

Darcy's newsletter had just been updated with some very cute pictures of Cow having a tug of war with Dummy over a sock. There was also several dirty limericks by Clint, a movie review that had extended to a long but entertaining debate over makeup effects versus digital effects between Sam and Leo, and a pencil sketch that Steve had made of Saturn.

"Hey, Cap," Phil gave him that usual smile that was somewhere between pride and admiration before turning to look at the other man. "Tony, how are you feeling today?"

"I'm sorry," Tony whispered, suddenly taking a step forward, throwing his arms around Phil's neck while burying his face on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," Phil looked surprised but then gently returned the hug. "There is no need to apologise."

Steve met his eyes and smiled. Neither of them had any idea what Tony was apologising for, but there was a common consensus aboard that Tony shouldn't feel bad for doing so.

Tony wasn't letting go though. Steve made an eye roll indicating the bathroom. Phill nodded and steered Tony inside.

The next step was very awkward but they managed to get Tony to let go and sit down on the toilet.

"So," Steve cleared his throat, trying to casually lean against the row of sinks and give the man some privacy. "Phil, anything new?"

"Someone is taking extra food," Phil was fixing his rumpled suit in the mirror. "Not much, though. Just a bit here and there. I think it's Clint, and maybe Jane or Natasha having some cravings. I also suspect that the bots might be sneaking treats to the dog. It's not a big problem so far, but it raised my awareness that we need to see some results on the greenhouse in the next month or two. Bruce is working on a better UV-light that ought to help."

"Sounds good," Steve nodded. "But we better discuss the food-issue next meeting. It's bad if someone is stealing..."

"I've killed you all."

Steve and Phil looked at Tony who was standing next to them. His eyes were haunting and the gaze was turned far away.

"What was that?" asked Phil.

"I've killed you all. You are all dead because of me."

The man's eyes were now fixed on his own reflection. He looked like he was about to break the mirror with his own bare fists. Steve put his hand to Tony's chest to hold him back. He could feel shape of the arc-reactor under the shirt. It was a sign of how far down Tony had gone that he didn't react to the touch.

"Tony, we're still alive. You haven't killed us."

"We might as well be dead," Tony took an unstable breath. "We are all going to die out here. It's all my fault. I made us go out into space. I made us leave Earth. We are going to starve to death, or get hit by an asteroid, or suffocate on carbon dioxide, or grow old and die..."

"Tony..." Steve pressed down on his chest harder, he could feel a rapid heartbeat move behind the device. "Please..."

"I killed us all. And over what? A crazy alien that lives an hour to my minute and has more issues than all of us combined?"

"Loki loves you Tony."

"I don't deserve him..."

Tony's knees suddenly buckled, Steve caught his arm but it ended up with both of them sitting on the floor. Phil followed them down. Tony was on the verge of tears. At least he was talking again, though Steve wasn't sure that he liked it.

"I fantasise about him..." Tony gave another broken exhale. "I can't stop thinking about him sexually. He doesn't feel sexual attraction and I'm violating him with my mind. What's wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong with me?"

He buried his face in his hands.

Steve really didn't want to hear this. It was very awkward, and it was hitting him a bit too close to home. He was quite relived when Phil decided to take point with a hard and certain tone.

"Stark, first off, you haven't killed any of us because we wouldn't let you and we will fight you trying. I've been dead once before and I haven't planned on doing it again in the near future. Second, I don't really understand what you and Loki have, but you are definitely not the first man to desire someone you can't be intimate with."

It sounded that it had hit close to home for Phil as well. Steve sighed and looked at Tony who was still looking quite miserable with tears in his eyes. There might be some sign of determination in the set of his chin though, at least Steve hoped there was.

"Loki is pretty strong and powerful guy," he said. "I don't think you could do anything to him that he doesn't want to."

It was a silly thing to say. Steve knew very well that even if Loki could defend himself against possible advantages, it was all a matter of trust.

"Also, this is something you should talk with him about, not us."

Tony nodded slowly.

"Good," Steve patted his shoulder. "Now, do you feel getting off the floor?"

Another nod. Steve rose to his feet and then more or less carefully lifted Tony to his. At least the man was steady and didn't collapse again. He still looked small and sad though. They better get him back to the Med-bay. Maybe now that Tony was talking maybe Sam could get through to him.

Coulson got up as well and dusted of his trousers.

"Ship secure. Agent Romanoff, get down on the floor now. Everyone, brace yourselfs,"

It wasn't JARVIS' normal voice, the one that could travel with you individually and hold different conversations in different rooms, this was heard around the whole ship at the same time.

"What the..."

The next moment all of them were on the floor again, falling against each other. There was a great noise sounding like every loose part, and some of the fixed ones, all grinding together at the same time. Steve felt his ears pop with sudden pressure.

"Loki," breathed Tony curling into a ball on the floor.

Steve cursed. He knew that he should have followed the guy.

.......

"How far can you see with that thing?" said Loki as he burst into the navigation room.

"What?" Jane looked up from the notebook she had balanced on her belly.

She was alone. Thor was probably in the common room watching a movie or in the kitchen learning how to cook, Loki didn't really care. He pointed at the star map that at the moment was depicting the planet of Saturn and at least fifty marked out rocks circling it.

"How far?"

"Well," she hesitated and slightly waddled over to the map. "That depends on the focus points. We are about here..." she pointed at a pulsating red dot "...and that is Ymir, that's the Saturn moon that's furthest away from us at the moment. That's a pretty good picture considering it's only sixteen kilometres across."

She made a movement that enlarged the image of the moon to the size of a small rock.

"Ymir?" Loki looked at the insignificant looking thing, it's edges were smudged.

"Yeah, several of the moons had names from the Norse Mythology. Aegir, Mundilfari, Jarnsaxa..."

Loki had stared at the small moon labelled Narvi. He hadn't quite expected humans to name a rock in space after one one of his dogs. One that Odin had killed just to teach him a lesson. Lesson learned, never trust Odin again. He took a breath.

"How far ahead in our path can we see for certain?"

"Well..." Jane made a few adjustments to the map. "Again, that depends. Once we're outside Pluto's orbit, we haven't yet decided which way to go... Tony... Tony was going to..."

Loki held up a hand, stopping her from saying anything more. He watched the map.

Teleporting the whole ship was going to be dangerous, especially past such a large force that Jupiter held on the space around it. It was dangerous not only for Loki himself but also for the ship. The space had to be absolutely clear. Even one small object, like a stone smaller than his thumb, could rake havoc if suddenly something appeared around it.

He mimicked Jane's movement and enlarged an area outside what she called Pluto's orbit. Just getting there would save them seven months, and it might be a better place to start from. Anthony would surly feel better if he knew they were on their way.

"What are you doing?" asked Jane.

"I'm moving us."

"No," she hissed. "You can't do that! You'll hurt yourself."

"Anthony is hurting himself," Loki hissed back. "He's working too hard and is now broken because of it, Jane."

"I thought he was ill because of the medicine you gave him," Jane crossed her arms.

Loki blinked.

"You knew? Did Thor tell you?"

"Yes, and no." She sighed and placed her hands on her belly. "I asked him if I could have some of it, but he said I need to wait until after the babies are born. He said it could have a negative impact on the mind. I put the rest together myself."

Again Thor had been smart enough to keep his mouth shut about the critical part. Loki smiled at her.

"Don't you see that's why I need to move the ship? Magically moving us forward will give him the respite he needs to get better. It will save on the ship's resources as well."

"Shouldn't we at least hold a meeting and discuss this?"

"I'm not waiting around to be turned down."

"But Jupiter... The engines... Tony..."

"The longer Anthony is incapacitated the more he has to work to make up for it. Banner, Fitz and Simmons are doing the best they can. But it's not enough. Time is running out."

"If time runs out Thor will take us to safety."

"Thor will tow us to Asgard the first chance he gets. I know you love him, but you also know he would do that in a heartbeat. What was it Odin compared you to? A goat? What do you think he'll think of your children?"

It was a really low and dirty blow. Loki knew that Thor wouldn't let anything bad happen to them, but once Odin knew of the humans taking the potion chances were he would have them killed, or at least incarcerated, behind Thor's back. Not all Asgardians would be as welcoming either, and certainly not towards Loki.

He looked at Jane, she was obviously hesitating.

"You trust in Thor like he was a real god. But he is the crown prince of Asgard, how do you think his children will be raised? I loved my mother dearly, but the first years of my life I thought I had at least five of them because of all the servants taking care of me. You are a woman of science. Would you live the rest of your life in a gilded cage, or onboard this ship seeking adventure?"

She was hugging her belly, her eyes were tightly closed. Loki knew that he got her.

"Now," he tried to memorise the map image as good as he could. "You need to help me find the absolute centre of the ship..."


	17. Surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the title says...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Important note 1:** I have discovered a mathematical error in my speed- and distance-calculations. I have gone back to chapter 11 to fix the numbers. It has no effect whatsoever on the plot and you don't need to go back if you aren't a stickler for numbers like me. 
> 
> **Important note 2:** Some of you may have noticed I *very very embarrassed* somehow put Saturn between Mars and Jupiter last chapter. I have now rectified this as well. Again, the changes have no effect at all on the plot, only on some of Loki's and Jane's conversation. (Just because it's an AU doesn't mean I can rearrange the solar system.)

"Get yourself together," Tony slapped his own face hard. "Get yourself together. Get back in the game!"

"Stop doing that," Steve took hold of his hands before he could hit himself again.

"Let go of me," Tony breathed. "I need to make myself feel."

"Do it in another way. Loki wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

Loki. Tony felt nauseous, like something clenching his heart that wasn't the arc-reactor. His guts curled and the inside of his nose itched like he was going to cry.

Loki was in the Freeze Machine. They had found him unconscious and completely blue on the floor of the main laboratory. He had been bleeding profusely from the nose and was so cold to the touch that only the the bots could get close enough to carry him to the Med-bay.

Jane had been on the floor by his side crying. It had taken several minutes to calm her down enough to tell them what had happened. Loki had really played her, if she hadn't been so sad it would be quite impressive. She wasn't angry with him though, only worried.

It was now two days on and things were finally settling down. Or rather, everyone had been awake and half-panicking for over forty hours and were falling asleep from exhaustion. As far as Tony knew only he, Steve, and Bucky were still awake.

They were on the Bridge. Bucky was temporarily promoted to first pilot and was manning the helm by himself while Steve and Tony were scrambling to make sense out of the situation. Or rather, Tony was scrambling, Steve was trying to keep Tony on track and not fall back into disparity.

"You really should rest," said Steve.

"I've rested enough. I'm fine."

Tony wasn't fine. The fear that he had killed, or was going to kill, all his friends were still running through his mind. Nobody of them were safe, even less now. Also, he was pumped so full of anti-depressants and uppers that sleeping was no longer an option. They would need to use the Hulk-shot him to bring him down.

JARVIS was still recalculating and adjusting the Heidrun to the new conditions around them. The teleportation had really done a number on the automatics. Some of the systems had been overloaded, others were glitchy, and a few had just shut down for safety. The onboard security cameras were among the glitchy ones. It was frustrating, mostly because Tony couldn't keep an eye on the Freeze Machine.

Four miniature asteroids had so far been found around the ship, thankfully none of them in any critical places. One had appeared on Clint's pillow, he had had a bit of a freak out over that when he found out.

Another one was lodged itself into the inner haul, but it fit so perfectly that it wasn't an emergency. The two others had just been innocently laying on the floor of the shower room.

They were still on the right course though, well, technically they were facing the same direction as before. Only problem was that they were about five billion kilometres further on than they should be, and at this point it was impossible to tell if the course was right or not.

Tony had no idea how Loki had managed to do this and still be alive. He felt nauseous again.

He could have lost him. Tony could have lost Loki. That was something he thought would never happen. They guy was basically immortal. The only thing worse than not being allowed to touch Loki would not to be with him at all.

Tony wanted to hit himself in the face again, but Steve would only stop him again. He stared at the new map that was forming on the screen. They were outside the solar system. He should be more amazed. Instead he was disappointed that he was cheated out of his chance to slingshot around Jupiter. Among other things it would have been glorious.

"Five billion kilometres," he shook his head. "Can you even imagine?"

"No," Steve shook his head.

"That's like distance Earth traveling around the sun in five and a half years," Tony scratched the back of his neck. "We traveled one thousand and six hundred times faster than the speed of light. That's not even possible in Star Trek, or maybe I missed that episode... Maybe in the Voyager series..."

"Is this you trying to dumb it down for me?"

"Yes, is it working?"

"Not really," Steve shook his head. "Never been good with numbers that big. Do you have anything smaller?"

"About five light-hours, Captain," supplied JARVIS.

"Thank you," said Steve. "That's a very good, understandable, number."

"Magic," sighed Tony, while ignoring the lesser intelligence in the room. "Breaking the laws of physics and fucking with minds."

And hurting magicians.

"How could he be this stupid?" Tony punched the side of the screen, carefully since it was more fragile than his face. "I told him not to do this. I told him! And don't tell me it was because of me, I feel bad enough already."

Steve didn't say anything which made it worse.

"Perhaps he was frustrated," suggested Bucky from the pilot seat. "If you can travel that far and fast our pace is probably boring."

"You can't risk your life because you are bored!"

"Said the pot to the kettle," Steve rolled his eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Tony gave him a sideways glare. Steve was lucky Tony was too drugged to fully feel the sting of that insult.

"Sir," JARVIS announced. "The security cameras are online and functional again."

"Good," Tony immediately turned his Starkpad on to the Med-bay and the Freeze Machine. "Any damages to the system?"

"Everything's operable, sir."

"Finally," Tony breathed, clutching his pad to his chest. "I need to sit down."

Steve steered him to the co-pilot seat. He suspected that he was going to live with the man as his shadow until he started to feel better. Mother hen had just gotten a new chick to look after, and, by the way, Tony was never going to reference himself as a 'chick' again.

He looked up at the large front window. Behind the holograms and glass was the infinite space. Loki might have taken them three light-hours forward, there were still over four light _years_ to Alpha Centauri, the next star system. How the fuck did the aliens do this?

Also, he looked down on the image of the Freeze Machine, how impatient was Loki going to get when he found that little fact out?

Tony made some fast calculations in his head. If he could finish the new engines, add on some of the tech from the lifeboat. With any luck and no sleep they could get away with maybe four days without propulsion to reboot the system, if they hurried. Then put everything to maximum and never let go of top speed, then they would reach Alpha Centauri... ...in three thousand years?

That couldn't be right, he must have counted that wrong... He blamed the drugs. Still... He was too scared to ask JARVIS to run the numbers. All right, try again. Four light years... Heidrun could probably average a light-hour per month with the new engines, once he finished them...

Fuck, the engines weren't finished.

Time to revise the plan. Original plan was to build engines, turn off old engines, slingshot around Jupiter to get rest, speed, and momentum, start new engines, then use five months to improve engines for outer space. New plan, finish building engines, turn off old engines, don't slingshot around anything, just drift into darkness until everyone dies....

Oh shit... He really had killed them all... They were all dead!

"Tony?" Steve asked. "Oh shit, head between your knees, Tony, breathe. What shall I do? Bucky?"

"Distract him before he breaks down again."

"With what?"

"How the fuck should I know? Anything!"

The next moment Tony felt a couple of firm lips pressed against his. He blinked his way up from the depths of his dark thoughts. Was Steve kissing him? It couldn't have lasted more then three seconds.

"Wh-wh-wha-?" he stammered.

"Don't take it the wrong way," Steve blushed. "It was just the first thing I could think of. Are you all right?"

"Wha-?" Tony tried again, staring back at Steve who was hunching down in front of him looking like a worried puppy.

The next moment Steve was forcefully pulled away by a metal arm gripping the neck of his sweater. Tony looked up to see Bucky fisting the fabric, holding up Steve on tip-toes under the chin. He didn't at all glance to Steve's stomach were the shirt was pulled up, just many a little, how many sit-ups a day did the guy do anyway?

"Don't you ever do that again," hissed Bucky angrily.

"Bucky? What?" Steve seemed to surprised to fight back.

Then, without warning, Bucky was kissing Steve, violently. After a moment of hesitation Steve was kissing him back. It looked like they were going eat each other.

As far as distractions went, this was well and certainly doing the trick. Tony couldn't even look away, let alone think about death. The two men was clearly resolving eighty years of sexual tension, okay, both out them had been pretty out of it for about sixty of those years, but still...

"Oh my god!"

It was Jemma Simmons doing her best impression of a shocked British lady. Though since she actually was all those things it probably wasn't an impression.

Steve's sense of decency, which was a bit higher than Bucky's who was still holding him tightly, made him unclasp his face from his friend and give the woman an embarrassed look.

"Don't stop on my account," said Jemma collecting herself.

"Sir," gruffed Bucky. "Permission for me and Rogers to leave the Bridge."

It took a major moment before Tony realised that Bucky was talking to him. They soldier was in attack-mode, and Steve was clearly the target.

"Permission granted," Tony smirked, they were all going to die, but that was only the more reason to let the crew have a little fun first. "Just don't break the ship."  
_  
"Tony!"_ Steve blushed but hesitated before Bucky could drag him away. "Are you going to be all right?"

"I'm fine," lied Tony. "I'm capable of being the pilot for a few hours of empty space, and Jemma is here to take care of me. Go have freaky super soldier sex."

Steve was about to make some big spluttered protest, but was then overpowered by an impatient Bucky pulling him into the elevator. The doors closed before he could get any words out, and by then his mouth was already busy with something else.

"Finally," said Jemma walking over to one of the largest computer consoles. "They have been running circles around each other for ages."

"Have they?" Tony frowned, he hadn't seen it and he usually picked up on those things.

Loki was rubbing off on him. Tony looked down at the security cameras of the Med-bay again, no change. He hadn't expected anything.

"M-hm," she nodded and typed a few commands into the machine.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Tony checked the autopilot was on before joining her at the console.

"I was going to, but I can never sleep without doing a bit of reading first. And look what I found."

She brought up the log from the alien lifeboat on the screen. Tony blinked.

"You read this before going to sleep? You really are Hermione Granger, aren't you?"

"I wish," she smiled and then sighed. "Since I haven't gotten any of Loki's medicine I decided to teach myself the language. You really learn to see the nuances..."

She went on talking but Tony wasn't really listening because he was staring at the strange symbols on the screen, and he could actually read them. _He could read an alien language!_ He could read all the languages! He had probably been able to do so for over a week, but been to busy worrying about dying and killing his friends to notice.

He could read, and it was fucking awesome! The thought took away that last bit of worry that the drugs and super hot men snogging hadn't been able to do.

"Wait," he paused himself in his internal celebration. "What did you say?"

"That the lifeboat isn't a lifeboat?" Jemma asked. "Well, it originally was, but they used it as something else. A coffin, like one of those boat burials at sea, but in space. And they didn't put it on fire. It was probably going into some star but it got caught in the engine stream of a passing ship..."

"Jem, where is the body?"

"What?"

"If it's a coffin, where is the body?"

"I..." She bit her lower lip. "I don't know."

.....

**Twelve days earlier**

[: priority order::big-daddy@::]  
[: >assist]

Dummy unfastened his security clamps and rolled away from his booth. He rolled his way towards the loading bay. He greeted You and Butterfingers as they joined him, they waived back.

By the loading bay they passed through the airlock and waited for the air to be pumped out of the room. At absolute vacuum the loading doors opened. They stood back as the cargo was gently pushed inside by Tanngnorst.

The object made no sound as the artificial gravity lowered it down to the floor. Dummy creeped a little bit closer as Tanngnorst backed away and the loading doors closed once again. The air-pumps hissed to life.

[: >scanning< *unidentified object* :]

[: >identifying< *alien spacecraft* :]

[: >feeling< *curious* :]

[: send file to: you@; butterfingers@ :]

[::you@: "updated />feeling< *curious*/" :]

They circled the alien spacecraft.

[::butterfingers@: ">identifying< *door* Send to: jarvis@" :]

[::dummy@: ">override< *cancel send*" :]

[::you@: ">access/>feeling< *confusion*/ :]

[::dummy@: ">action< *open*" :]

[::you@: "ask big-daddy@? ask jarvis@?" :]

[::dummy@: ">response action< re:*curious*;*find out*" :]

[::you@: ">response action< re:*trouble*;*punish*" :]

[::dummy@: >action< *open* :] he nudged his brother.

[::you@: >action< *denied* :] You refused to move. [: >response action< re:*jarvis@*;*will report* :]

Dummy agreed. JARVIS would definitely tell Daddy, and then they would all be in trouble. What was he going to do? He was really curious.

[::butterfingers@: >suggestion< *butterfingers@ *distract* jarvis@?* :]

[::dummy@: >feeling< *happy* >action< *granted* :]

You made a small protesting noise. Butterfingers extracted his favourite rag from his tool belt, the one made of one of Daddy's old shirts, and rolled over to start cleaning the closest camera, blocking its view.

[::jarvis@: What are you doing? :]

[::butterfingers@ >detection< *smudge* :]

[::jarvis@: Thank you, but that really isn't a priority at this moment. Please go back to work. :]

[::butterfingers@: >accessing audio file c:/bigdaddy/orders/priorities/current< >playing file< "Let go of the hammer! Put it down! Not there! Give it to me! Fuck! I'm demoting you to infinite cleaning duty!" >end file< :]

[::jarvis@: All right, fine, but hurry up. This is my only view of this angle. :]

Meanwhile Dummy had gotten You to open the door. It was an easy 'pull to open'. He peaked inside. It was dark so he turned on his light.

[::dummy@: >expression of surprise< *holy shit* :]

 

\---

"Holy shit," said Tony.

He had made the executive order to turn on every camera onboard, even those that were turned off for personal privacy. He was now flipping by through them one by one. Sorting the holographic screens into piles like playing cards.

Those that were empty, those that showed his friends who were sleeping... And those that showed his friends were were not sleeping.

"I knew Steve was limber but that is something..."

Jemma made a strange sound. Tony glanced at her.

"I hope you didn't keep a flame for either of them," he said as he quickly sorted away images of empty corridors.

"No," Jemma blushed.

Tony suspected that she had someone else in mind, but now wasn't the time to find anything out. He was about ninety percent sure that the girl didn't play for Hill's team, but then again it was hard to tell. He just hoped she didn't have hat eye on any of the taken ones, they had enough drama onboard.

Bruce was sleeping, spooning with Darcy in his arms, both were fully dressed and unruffled. The dog was at their feet, his head resting on Bruce's ankle.

Thor was curled protectively around Jane with a hand on her belly, he was bare to the waist, she had one of his large shirts on. The bedsheets were kicked down on the floor.

Clint and Nat were in the common room, he was massaging her feet while both watched a movie on the television, _The Man with the Golden Gun_ to be precise.

Leo, Coulson, Hill, and Sam were in their own beds, only Coulson was awake and reading. Kingsley slept on one of the beds in the infirmary, the gauze from his face and hands were off and his burned skin exposed. Loki was still quiet in the Freeze Machine.

Tony felt a bit calmer seeing them all safe.

"I assure you, sir," JARVIS said patiently. "There are no unauthorised passengers aboard. I would have noticed."

"Someone could have tricked you," Tony kept pushing frames to the side. "Almost none of the cameras or sensors are constantly in use. Someone with intimate knowledge of your systems could probably hide something from you."

"That's only you, sir."

"And the bots, they can be pretty sneaky bastards if they want to. Esspecially now when Dummy is more conscious and shares everything with his little brothers..." He could probably say the same for JARVIS, but he refrained. "Where are they?"

JARVIS selected three images from the unsorted pile.

"Oh dear," said the computer. "I'm sorry, sir. It seems that I need to do some internal scans."

Dummy was going round replacing any broken fuse and light bulbs he came across, there had been a few blowouts in the teleportation. Butterfingers was in the kitchen vacuuming up crumbs of the floor.

You was in one of the spare rooms trying to feed some bread to a large blue man who defiantly wasn't dead. He wasn't awake either so the bot's efforts were useless, though it didn't stop him from trying.

"Oh, shit," said Tony again.

"Bloody hell," agreed Jemma.

The alien was on the bed, naked as it seemed, with a blanket covering his knees and privates. He was somewhere between Steve and Thor in size. Tony assumed it was a male because of the lack off breasts, but what did he know about the species?

"Twelve days..." he sighed and wished someone had drugged him more so he too could have slept through this. "A big blue alien been aboard for twelve days, and nobody noticed it. How can that be?"

Jemma just looked baffled, not much help there.

"It would seem, sir..." JARVIS sounded very apologetic. "According to the files the bots found him unconscious, and he has continued to be so this entire time. Until the teleportation, the last two days he has been slowly waking up."

At that moment the alien opened up his mouth to the food and started chewing.

"Great," Tony rubbed his face. "This is what happens when you start respecting privacy. Your sentient robots start harbouring aliens. Prepare the suit. I'm going in."

"Shouldn't you wake Thor?" asked Jemma while not looking away from me he screen.

"And have my perfectly clean ship painted with blue brain matter? I don't think so. He's a hammer before questions kind of guy. JARVIS, suit."

Tony wished he could wake Loki though, but he couldn't. That bastard was going to sleep this one through as well.

......


	18. New alien aboard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who is a their mysterious blue guest?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My knowledge of the Kree race comes from what I remember from an article I read several months ago and the GOTG, the rest I made up. 
> 
> Also, yes, poor Loki. I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better.

"I was beginning to think this was a ship of androids."

The Kree glanced at Iron Man who was standing by Loki's side like a hard vigilant bodyguard. Inside the suit Loki knew Anthony was less than hard. 

"No," Loki looked the Kree over. "This is a Terran ship."

He was a different shade of blue than a Frostgiant, slightly darker. There was short dark brown hair over his head, but the cut of it suggested that normally everything was clean shaved off. His eyebrows were permanently removed. This and the fact that he was a Kree of blue skin and not pink further suggested upper class.

Loki was still in great pain, especially in his gut and head, but his armour, glamour, and superior attitude hid it well. 

He had only slept for a day and it was only one hour since he had been forcefully awakened. It felt like he had been awake for five decades. He didn't feel remotely rested and parts of his skin was still blue and cold under the armour. 

Anthony had practically been begging him to help them. Nobody could deliver a threat like Loki, and with the kind of security they had onboard the only way they could to keep someone in one place was with threats. Heidrun wasn't built to keep prisoners. 

Loki liked to be begged, but in this instance he would had preferred not to be. The teleportation had taken more out of him than the time Hulk had used his body to destroy a marble floor. If he could allow himself to groan he would. 

But this was Anthony, his Anthony, and Anthony was ill because of him. He could see how much it pained the human to ask this of him while in this state. So Loki fought through his pains once again and did what he did best. Manipulation and observation. 

"Terran?" the Kree leaned back on the bed he was sitting on. "The protected planet?"

"So you heard of it?"

"I have..." he had an almost invisible moment of hesitation. "But I do not remember from where I heard about it."

"'The protected planet'" Loki smiled "It's a good name. The planet is so abounded with protectors that some of them had to leave to make room for them all."

"You are not Terran."

"No, I'm definitely not."

"And you are not the commander of this ship. I told this android that I wanted the commander."

Loki refrained to look back at Anthony, or at the camera that let the others look in on the proceedings. 

"Let's say this is the closest you are going to to get to the commander for now."

The Kree man squared his bare broad shoulders in a way that probably would impress anyone that hasn't grown up surrounded by Asgardian warriors. Either way, too broad shoulders had never been an attraction point to Loki, something he should never tell Anthony for the sake of the man's vanity. 

"Now," he pushed his own shoulders back, ignoring the stinging pain that it gave him. "Why don't you tell me your name and why you ended up presumed dead in an escape vessel on the other side of the Galaxy. 

"Dead?" 

"Yes, dead. Your name."

"Don't you know it?" 

For the first time Loki saw a real crack in the otherwise strong facade. There was something like uncertainty in those purple eyes. It was only momentarily, but it was there. 

"Why would I?"

"If you say I was presumed dead, my name must have been written on my tomb."

"There was no name," said Anthony through the speakers of his suit, lending his voice an artificial character. "It was a very basic lifeboat. There was nothing written on it or the computer other than a simple map and basic first aid instructions. They didn't even bother to wipe the memory clan before sending you away." 

The Kree's jaw stiffened, his eyes turned quickly to the right, indicating he was trying to access real memories rather than constructing fake ones. Again it was an almost invisible movement. The Kree was highly intelligent and obviously his mind was very well trained. 

"It seems you were sent to your grave in deep disgrace. Now, tell me your name."

"And if I don't tell you?"

"We have ways of making you talk."

Loki knew that none of the humans, nor Thor, approved of torture, but the threat of it could sometimes be as effective. Loki could personally see torture as a means to an end, but after being submitted to it far too many times himself he was reluctant to make use of it. 

"Why don't you tell me your name first?" 

"I'm beginning to wonder..." Loki leaned slightly forward to look into those purple eyes. "...if you might have forgotten your name. We also have ways to make you remember."

"And if I have forgotten?" the Kree rose his chin in challenge. 

"Then you are in for a painful remembrance," he stood up straight. "Think about it. Don't try to escape, you won't like what you'll meet on the other side of that door."

Loki gave the man his best smile of madness, which was a bit too easy to do, and left the room. Anthony followed him. 

Outside, door closed, Loki took a deep breath and fell against the wall. He was in no shape to even stand up anymore. Rogers and Barnes were there to stand guard but didn't move when Loki hit the floor. There were something different about them, the way the looked at each other, but Loki was too tired to find out what. 

"Thank you, babe," Anthony pushed up his visor and smiled down at him. "Would you let me carry you back to the Med-bay? I'm wearing the suit anyway and it would seem a waste not to take this opportunity to hold you."

"You are such an opportunist," Loki sighed and held up his arms. "Very well, but only because I have no use of my legs and this floor is dirty."

Anthony chuckled and easily lifted him up bridal style. 

\----------- 

Bruce was taking a blood sample. The alien had green blood, almost the same green as the Hulk's skin. He had read through the medical logs from the ship, the Kree blood was not based on iron but on copper. A strange thought. 

Second day of 'Alien Investigations', (Tony with his silly names for things that always got stuck). They had decided just to call the alien 'Kree', it was a bit derogatory and made a few people uncomfortable, but it had been the name that stuck and what the alien best responded to. 

Perhaps because it reminded him of what he was. 

There were very clear signs that Kree had a kind of selective memory loss, specifically of those memories concerning identity and life events. 

At least Loki seemed to think there was memory loss. It was impossible to know for sure though. Kree could be faking it, he seemed pretty smart in any other regard. Also, Loki wasn't working on all cylinders at the moment. Bruce was holding his anger close, it was hard effort, but he was ready to let our the beast at any false move. 

So far so good. 

And Bruce was angry. He was angry because he was scared that if he turned into the Hulk the chance was he he could get stuck there again. What if this time they couldn't bring him back? What if he was to remain the Hulk for the rest of his life? All this alien had to do was to lash out and Bruce would be doomed. 

He was also angry with himself for not telling his friends about his concerns, not even Darcy. 

Their relationship was still new, and she was still fragile. All the tumours were gone now, but was what to say she wouldn't relapse? She was so brave, so much braver than him. She would stay with him if he got stuck as the Hulk, he knew that, but at what price? She deserved so much more than a giant green man broken down inside. 

Kree had been cooperating but had been watching him closely the whole time. 

"Either you are very foolish or very dangerous to be in here alone with me." 

He had a dark voice, a voice that seemed used to giving orders and having them followed. Loki had guessed him being of the upper class, and since the Kree was apparently a warrior race and the man had many old scars, it was not impossible that he was one of their leaders. Though a disgraced one, not even deserving of a named grave, thought dead and burned to ashes in a star far away. 

"Maybe I am both," Bruce put his samples away. 

"You do not look dangerous. You look like I could easily break you."

"Why don't you try it?" 

Green eyes met purple. Kree leaned back against the wall. 

"Good choice," Bruce nodded. 

"How longer am I to remain in this room? I grow weary of these walls."

He sounded like Thor. 

"That's not up to me."

Though it was. Bruce was not only there to get blood samples.

They may have left Earth but that didn't mean that they left their values behind as well. He could see muscle loss in the loose stretch of the blue skin. The room they were in was just as an isolation cell but with a nice bed. 

"Where is the man I met yesterday, he was Asgardian, wasn't he?"

"How do you know that?" 

"I know things."

"Like your name? Who you are?"

Kree narrowed his eyes slightly. He was obviously too well-trained to show weakness, and that made him very dangerous. Just like with Loki had been, but Loki was reasonable and was learning to trust, mostly because those traits were shown against him as well. 

Memory loss was a different thing though. 

Still, keeping Kree here much longer would be inhumane. 

"I am Kree," said Kree proudly. "The most noblest race, all others are inferior to me. You are inferior to me."

"That's not the kind of talk that will bring you more freedom."

"I do not bend for lesser beings."

"Neither do I," Bruce let some of his Hulk slip through, it rippled under his skin like a green wave of emotion. "I smash them."

There was a new look in Kree's eyes, maybe it was respect. 

Bruce gathered his things and left the room with a last look of warning before closing the door. It locked automatically behind him. 

He gave Steve a weak smile as his friend approached him with Bucky in tow. Bruce had noticed them touching as he got out, and then quickly pulling back as he hand turned to look at them. It was sweet that they at least tried to keep a level of professionalism about them. 

The two of them had gone from best friends to lovers so fast their heads must still be spinning. Tony had told Bruce what had happened on the Bridge the day before and even Bruce got dizzy. He was sure that if this thing with Kree hadn't happened the two of them would still be in bed together. 

Maybe it wasn't the best tactic to let two people having trouble keeping their hands off each other to guard a prisoner, but putting Thor there was to play even more with fire. Thor was not a guard, he was a man of action. 

That was why they were sending him away. Well, partly why...

"How is he?" asked Steve nodding towards the door. 

"Suspicious and bored, and the worst combination of the two. If he hasn't already, it won't take long before he realises he's in a spare bedroom and not a cell."

"Do you really think he lost his memory?"

"It's possible. The manner in which they sent him away indicates that they really thought he was dead. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't suffered quite a lot of trauma."

"I don't think he's lying," said Bucky. "I don't understand a single word he's saying but I know what it looks when you can't remember who you are."

Steve gave his friend a sad smile that tugged Bruce's heartstrings. 

"Where is Tony?" he asked.

"At the airlock, saying goodbye to Thor."

Bruce thanked him and walked towards the elevator. 

He wasn't jealous of them, not that much anyway. Sex didn't bother him much anymore. He had been stuck with the Other Guy for the last third of his life. Getting sexually excited hadn't been an option for so long. He used to compare to being celibate, pious to his inner Lord and Monster. 

Darcy had brought up old feelings, feelings he hadn't thought of since Liz... It was always his weakness for pretty girls that brought him down. 

Tony was already in the elevator when Bruce stepped inside, so was Natasha and Clint. They all continued up to the Bridge. 

"How's our guest?" asked Tony. 

"As can be expected," Bruce sighed. "How's Thor?"

"He wasn't happy about leaving, but he understood why. As much as I don't want to admit it, we won't survive without outside assistance. He had to go get help. It took some convincing for him not to take our guest with him, or tow us along after him."

"The indignity of it all," said Nat with a sarcastic smile. "Stark would never hang on a string pulled by a god."

"I know Loki only wanted to help," Tony gave her an irritated look. "I love the guy, but sometimes I just..." He took a breath. 

"Welcome to my world," said Clint bitterly. 

Clint was on 'Tony-watch', a silent agreement never to let Tony be alone when Loki wasn't around. Tony knew about it, and the most worrying thing about it that was that he didn't protest.

They stepped out onto the Bridge, Hill and Sam were at their seats. 

"So what's the plan?" asked Bruce. "Just carry on as usual until Thor returns with the cavalry?"

"Yes," Tony looked out of the large front window. "I will continue to work on the engines."

"Is that wise? To go outside, I mean. You only just recovered."

"Are you afraid that I will let go? The thought has occurred to me... It looks quite peaceful out there..." He drifted off. 

Clint nudged Bruce, nodding at him to say something. Bruce cleared his throat. 

"I think we need to let Kree out in the general population."

"You make it sound like we all are inmates," said Nat, looking around and scratching her near seven month belly. "Fair call."

"Is he a flight risk?" Tony brought up the live feed of Kree on one of the smaller monitors.

The blue man was leafing through a book, but finding it in a language he didn't understand he threw it against the wall. Tony winced. All books onboard were very specially selected and most were very expensive. 

"Okay," he said. "Ground rules, advice, I'm open for suggestions."

"Don't let him inside the kitchen," said Clint. "Or the Bridge, or anywhere near the armoury, or the labs. Or my room."

"Make him know he has restricted access to the computer," Bruce nodded. "And that you can't run the ship without it. JARVIS is both sentient and loyal to us, and doesn't respond to threats."

"Sometimes I do," said JARVIS.

"Don't let him know that, Jarv," smiled Tony. "Play it tough. What else?"

Sam cleared his throat. 

"Give him a casual show of strength, not full out of course. Maybe when Cap is in the gym, Loki doing some magic trick, or Clint practicing his bow. Perhaps even the Hulk. We want him to feel respect enough not to turn on us."

"Oh, psychological warfare, I like it."

"And have a serious talk with your bots," said Hill. 

"Good call," Tony rubbed his hands together. "All right, we have a plan. Carry on with our work, entertain the alien, and wait for Thor to get back."

Bruce agreed that it was the best they could do. 

\-----------

 

Loki laid back on the bed. He didn't want to return to the Freeze Machine just yet, it felt degrading to be relying on a machine to recuperate. 

He turned to reach over the body pillow and stroke Anthony's side of the bed. He had given the man an extra minute to Loki's hour by giving him the small drop of potion. A life two minutes to an hour still wasn't enough, but it was still more than one. But had it been worth the cost if Anthony went through those two minutes being depressed?

Loki had really screwed this one up, hadn't he? He should have realised that Anthony had a plan with the engines, the man had even told him about it several times. But Loki had been too impatient to listen. 

Everything was supposed to have happened in steps, and by teleporting Loki had made them jump several of the steps, and now they had entirely lost their footing. 

He felt something itch in his nose and his upper lip, he didn't bother touching it because he could smell the blood. After a moment of not moving he could taste it as well. He really should be getting back to the Freeze Machine. But what was the use? 

He was rash, stubborn, and didn't listen. If they hadn't had Thor, And Thor hadn't had Mjölner, they would all be dead. Of course Anthony and the other scientists would have done their best, but would it have been enough? 

Loki could have teleported himself somewhere, it was after all simpler to do so than a whole ship, but he had no reference to this part of space. The closest living planet from here was Earth. He strongly doubted he would make it back, even if he were in that elusive peak health that he never seemed able to reach again. 

And now they had to beg for help from outsiders, it was so degrading. And they had to break up the team to do it. That was on Loki as well. Separating the Avengers in a moment of crisis. It wouldn't do anything for his image onboard. 

Thor had been by to say farewell and to ask Loki to look over the others, especially Jane. He also asked Loki not to use the potion again until he got back. Loki had promised to do both but only told the truth on the former. 

Next up would be Wilson, then Rogers, then Barnes. Just because Banner had cut in line didn't mean Loki should throw caution to the wind. Now more than ever he needed to be careful, but he also needed to finish his plan. 

The Kree was a blessing in disguise. The alien would serve both as a distraction and as an incentive for the others to take the potion to get Allspeak. 

It felt strange referring to someone else as 'the alien', usually that epithet was saved for Loki. 

He kept stroking the soft fabric for a moment but then pulled the body pillow closer and hugged it. It stained with the blood on his face, but he didn't care. He had been thoroughly educated in how to use the washing machines, even the thought of watching a 'spin cycle' trough the small round window was calming to him. 

He was going to give the next potion to Wilson, but there had to be an Intellectual Clarity before that. Who among the scientists aboard would be most likely to come up with a good idea to get things moving?


	19. Next step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is getting an Intellectual Clarity, and Kree is getting a tour of the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First time I'm one day late with this. My excuse is that I discovered the Love Stage anime and had to watch all 10 episodes before going to bed. 
> 
> Thank you for your continued interest in my little story. I have no idea how it's going to end.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Tony. 

"Of course I'm sure," huffed Loki not sounding too much insulted. "It's a brilliant plan."

"Like all your other plans?"

"Do you want to do this or not?"

"Sorry, sorry."

"Then get to work. You are wasting time."

Tony had found Loki in their room changing the sheets on their bed. The sight wasn't that rare, since they had all agreed to do menial tasks, what was interesting was how much Loki had improved his technique since first learning to do make a bed a few months ago. He folded the edges of the sheet perfectly, not just stuffing them under the mattress like Tony did. 

They were now in the main laboratory, surrounded by holograms, prototypes, and high quality tools. They were trying to immerse Tony as deep as possible in work and research so his intellectual Moment of Clarity would unlock some technical genius in him. 

That was Loki's plan as he told it anyway. Tony had his doubts of its success but he was willing to try. He already felt bad for his reaction last time he got a Clarity. The fear, guilt and depression were still lingering in the back of his mind, but he had managed to keep himself going by pure crisis management. 

Hopefully, as the crisis began to subdue, he could replace it with hard work. 

A whole day had gone by since Thor left. The guy had contrary to his nature not made so much noise on the ship, but he left a hole larger than himself when he wasn't there. Jane had troubles sleeping without him. Granted, having two big babies inside you wasn't the best way to get some sleep. Either way, she had been caught by the cameras waddling away to her lab in the middle of the night. 

And then there was the alien. Tony had yet to introduce himself as the 'commander' to their, so called, guest. The alien still thought that Iron Man was a robot. He wondered if it wasn't the best choice for now. 

Maybe he should introduce himself like they presented powerful leaders in movies. He could sit on a big chair decked out in gold, blankets and furs. Low lighting from below, a hard look in his eyes, and Steve and Bucky, rugged and bare breasted with oiled up muscles flanking him menacingly. Hill with a huge gun casually over her shoulder. Loki dressed up in a Princess Leia costume at his feet... Whoa, wrong fantasy. 

Maybe a simple 'hi' would do. 

Bruce and Bucky were in the process of showing the blue amnesiac around the ship. They were not coming close to this or any of the other labs. They had agreed on showing Kree the common room, the gym, the bathrooms, and the kitchen. 

Clint not had not been happy about the last one, but had agreed that it was better if Kree could make his own food rather than being served all the time. Either way the alien was not to be allowed to go anywhere, except his own room, without company. 

"Anthony," snapped Loki. "You are not concentrating."

"Sorry, babe."

"Don't say sorry. Work."

"You are so sexy when you use that tone of voice."

"Though I'm mildly happy you are feeling good enough to get your idiotic sense of humour back, my love, I'm not amused. Now concentrate!"

Tony didn't need to be told trice. He finally let himself go and tried to find his way back to his ordinary pace. It was surprisingly easy. Jemma, Leo, Jane, and Bruce had done a lot of work while he was out and he almost revelled in catching up with them. 

He could feel Loki moving around in the room but it felt more like something safe than a distraction, as if Loki was watching his back. Tony smiled and opened up another engine schematic on the holographic screen. 

\------- 

Bucky was following Bruce and Kree by a few paces. He kept a close look on both of them. 

Kree was wearing a white T-shirt with a big Stark-logo on it that Steve only wore on days he had forgotten to do laundry. The grey drawstring trousers were fitted for Thor but he had never worn them. The shoes were simple felt-slippers, also Thor's but never used. Kree didn't seem too happy with the outfit, but it was better than walking around naked. 

It was strange to listen to them talk. Bruce seemed to be talking English and the alien pure gibberish, yet they seemed to understand each other perfectly. The only thing Bucky could recognise in the strange language was the, apparently universal, speech patterns when Kree was asking a question or making a statement. 

They had just left the Med-bay and were on their way to the gym. Kingsley had done some basic examinations, some x-rays, and a brain scan. Jemma had been there as well looking very excited, she had even managed to fumble some self-taught Kree words in. 

"Oh my," Kingsley had said when he looked at the screen after the brain scan. "Well, at least we know he's not faking it."

Bucky didn't know much about biology and medicine, as a foot soldier his expertise lay more on the harming side than the healing side, but even he knew that missing fourteen percent of your brain was bad. 

He knew it was fourteen percent since JARVIS had been kind enough to make the calculation. Actually, it was fourteen point twenty-one percent but Bucky wasn't a computer and didn't really care about margins. 

Kingsley said it looked like the portion of the brain had been burned out rather than surgically removed, something he should know a lot about. Also, since he was the only one there able to interpret the scans the trusted his word for it. He said that something seemed to have caught fire _inside_ Kree's head and burned away a chunk of his brain. 

Loki would be asked to have a look, but wasn't hard to believe that it had to be magic of some kind.

Kree himself seemed unaffected by the news, as if it confirmed something he already knew. Bucky knew the feeling, even though his brain had been intact for his Winter Soldier years there had always been a figurative hole inside his head. It still wasn't completely gone, but he was working on it. 

They were now at the gym. It was their first stop in their tour, and their first opportunity to show a casual show of strength. They had had a group meeting were they had carefully planned how they would make it look as casual as possible. Bucky hoped it wouldn't appear too casual either. Kree was obviously an intelligent man and would likely see through any overacting. 

He was quietly observing Kree for any signs of aggression or serious plotting. Bucky knew far too well what it was like to have no memory, and he knew a few things about gathering information in that state. You took what you could get and tried to use it to its best advantage. Sometimes that could be very dangerous for those who were close by. 

"It's robotic," said Bruce answering a question from Kree. 

They were talking about Bucky's arm. He was only wearing a simple black t-shirt today, so the shiny metal was very visible. It was of course on purpose. Bucky clenched his first and moved his fingers to show off the flexibility of the arm. 

"This is the gym," Bruce opened the sliding doors. "All equipment is magnetically attached to the holders, for safety, and in event of possible loss of gravity. The computer identifies if you are authorised to lift them. 

Kree said something in his deep voice sounding neither insulted nor amused. 

"No," Bruce held out his hand in an 'after you'-gesture. "For the time being you can use the track and your own body-weight if you want to exercise." 

Clint and Natasha were already inside the gym. Clint's forearms were padded and Natasha was practicing. Her belly only slightly restricted her usual high kicks, she didn't do any jumps and definitely not any flips. Still, it was quite an impressive fight. It was clear that she was holding back not to hurt herself or Clint who expertly blocked her attacks. 

They stopped abruptly as Kree entered. Natasha breathed deeply but still quite calmly, Clint's breathing was marginally elevated. They hadn't been training long, maybe five minutes. 

Clint grunted angrily, he was a good actor. 

"You didn't say you were bringing him this way."

He didn't step in front of Natasha to protect her, a clear sign that she was his equal and could defend herself if necessary. It was a minor assessment testing the Kree's attitude towards females. According to the database the species had the same genders as humans. 

There was no surprise on the alien's face over seeing a pregnant woman fight. He looked more interested in testing her skills himself than being outraged. A good sign, at least Bucky hoped it was a good sign. 

"There's not many ways we can bring him," said Bruce.

He indicated the silver wrist-guard they had placed around Kree's right forearm. It was just a spare part from one of Tony's suits, a useless piece of metal, but Kree didn't know that. They had just placed it on him without explanation. Kree glanced at it as well. 

Heidrun wasn't equipped to restrain its passengers, and the airlock wasn't logistically functional as a holding cell. Psychological restraints were the best they could do. 

Kree said something again, it sounded like a greeting though not a very polite one. Then there was another question. 

"No, not all," Clint smirked and glanced quickly at Bucky. "But some do become with time."

"Behave," Bruce sighed. 

Clint huffed and returned to his training stance, motioning to Natasha to continue her practice. Natasha gave Kree a last searching look before turning away and giving Clint's left arm pad a deadly elbow-fist combination.

"He asked if all our fighting-pairs are lovers," translated Bruce to Bucky and then turned back to Kree. "We don't really have fighting-pairs, but guess lovers like to be close."

Bucky let his mind wander momentarily to Steve who was on kitchen duty with Darcy at the moment. They had all agreed on keeping business as usual as possible, that included the cooking and cleaning schedules. 

He was looking forward to eating Steve's cooking. Steve wasn't the best cook onboard, that would be Coulson and sometimes Clint when he got his overactive tastebuds under control, but Steve had a way of making simple food taste like home. 

It was still a surprise to Bucky that Steve now was his boyfriend. He had thought for sure that Steve would end up with either Jemma or Sam. Bucky had noticed a clear interest in Steve for both of them. Personally he hadn't cared, he had only a slight jealousy over potentially loosing part of his closeness to his best friend. 

It was when Steve had kissed Tony that that jealousy had become more than Bucky could handle. He knew very well that the kiss had been a distraction and didn't mean anything more than a distraction because Steve hadn't wanted to slap Tony in the face, but it had been enough to push Bucky over the edge. 

He was quite happy over Steve's response. He was still very shocked that it had happened at all, but he was happy. 

Steve had wondered, afterwards while resting on Bucky's good shoulder, why the hadn't come together sooner, back when they were young. Bucky hadn't answered because he knew that both of them already knew the answer. They had needed to loose each other to find each other again. They had needed to start over. It was also too fucking sappy to say out loud. 

"What do you mean 'he has a hole inside his head'?" said Jane's voice before they turned the corner and met her face to face. "That's so awesome. I'm coming over right n-..."

She was leaning against the wall, one hand supporting her belly, the other holdings a phone to her ear. She slightly paled when she saw them, especially Kree, but held her composure quite well. After all, she was still speaking English. 

"Got to go Jem bye," she quickly hissed to her phone and hid it guiltily her lab coat pocket. 

Despite her high intelligence, Jane was in physical strength admittedly the most defenceless person onboard, even more now with Thor gone. It wasn't part of this first tour to run into her, but adapting was always an option. Anyway they hadn't planned hiding anyone from their visitor. 

"This is Dr Foster," introduced Bruce. "Our Navigator."

"Hi," she said with a nervous smile. 

Kree looked her over once, he didn't double take her belly even though it took up about a quarter of her body weight, and gave her a short slow nod. It seemed respectful even though his face didn't show any emotion. Jane got flustered and made a small curtsy before realising what she had done and grimaced over her sore knees and ankles that hadn't liked the movement at all. 

"Damn it," she leaned against the wall again. 

Kree watched her with slight interest. Bruce stepped forward. 

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jane laughed and waived him off. "I'm on my way to the Med-bay anyway, I'm just waiting for Leo, he needed the bathroom."

Kree said something, it sounded like a question. Bruce looked hesitant. 

"I'll ask Tony, I mean, the commander. I'm sure it won't be a problem." He turned to Jane. "He asked if he could know our position."

"Well, that's easy," Jane shook her head with a bitter smirk. "We are in the middle of nowhere between the Unknown and the Wast Emptiness Of Nothing."

She was apparently not in her usual optimistic mood today. 

They all looked up as Leo Fitz turned the corner and came towards them. 

"Hello," he said. 

Kree looked a bit surprised that he could understand him but didn't respond to the greeting with more than another nod. Bruce introduced Leo as a mechanic researcher. 

As Bruce led Kree on towards the common room, and let Jane and Leo go the other way, Bucky heard Jane whisper to Leo enthusiastically about the hole inside Kree's head. Bucky rolled his eyes and followed Bruce. 

In the common room they met with Cow who was so happy to see Bruce that he barked and started wagging his tail as something very vibrant had possessed it. Bruce laughed and scratched the dog's ears. Cow made a noise similar to a broken whistle. 

Kree looked at the creature like it reminded him of something but wasn't sure what. He didn't show any fear or hesitation though when he allowed Cow to smell his hand. The dog didn't seem threatened by his smell and gave his fingers a lick before giving Bucky a big respectful doggie-smile. 

Coulson was sitting on the sofa, he had his shoes off and his socked feet crossed comfortably on the floor. He wasn't wearing a jacket, his tie was loosened, and the top button in his shirt was open. Bucky had never seen him so casual. If he didn't think he knew better he'd think the man was having a breakdown. 

The television was playing an old black and white gangster movie that Bucky vaguely remembered from his childhood but couldn't place, anyway the sound was very low and Coulson had mostly been distantly staring at his StarkPad when they entered. 

Kree said something in a tone between surprise and curiosity. 

"Did he say we are of the same blood?" asked Coulson. 

"Yes," Bruce blinked. "Do you understand him?"

"No, but I can feel it too." Coulson smiled sadly. "Hi."

Now Bucky knew something was wrong. Coulson was being far to casual. 

"H-hi," said Kree hesitatingly like he was testing out the word, which he probably did. 

"Good," said Bruce with a big smile. "You are learning."

The two of them watched each other warily for a moment that seemed much longer than it actually was. Then the television took the opportunity to display a gunfight with low popping sounds and several actors overacting falling down. Kree huffed. 

"Yeah," said Bruce. "It's pretty bad. Do you have movies where you come from?"

Kree gave a dismissive shrug that probably meant yes, but also that such things were beneath him. Still, Bucky noticed, the guy had great difficulty looking away from the screen. Coulson had also turned to look. 

"Dr Banner?" JARVIS made himself known. "Mr Stark requires your presence in the main laboratory. It's urgent."

"Oh," Bruce glanced at Kree. "I'm sorry, it seems that the tour will be cut short. I'm sorry. Eh... Bucky? Can you show him the kitchen? Darcy's there, she can talk to him, and it's close to dinner anyway."

Bucky nodded, he didn't mind going to the kitchen. 

Bruce left with a friendly waive and Cow on his heals. Kree seemed to relax slightly at his departure. Bucky knew the feeling, Those piercing crystal-green eyes were unsettling on a kind face like Bruce's, even behind the glasses. 

"I'll come with you," said Coulson reaching for his shoes. "I'm doing some inventory anyway."

The television turned itself off as he rose to his feet. 

\----------

Tony was so messed up. 

Feelings of excitement, nausea, dread, rage, and pure fear were running his brain through an extensive emotional workout. On one hand he might just have found a way to get out of this forgotten part of the universe, on the other hand Loki was severely hurt because of it. 

"I'm fine," insisted Loki, his voice was muffled by him holding a bloodstained towel over the lower part of his face. "It's nothing."

"Bullshit," hissed Tony. "Utter fucking bullshit. You are going to get back in the Freeze Machine and fucking stay there until I fucking say so." 

"Are you threatening me, Anthony?"

"Yes, babe, I am." Tony softened slightly. "Look, you are not doing my anxiety any favours like this. I worry enough without worrying about you hurting yourself. You don't want me to have another breakdown, do you? Because I can feel one coming on."

Loki looked like he was about to protest over the obvious emotional blackmail but just glared sourly back over the towel. 

Bruce entered the lab in a small jog, he frowned at the sight of the blood but didn't mention it. 

"Any news?" he asked. 

"Yes," Tony grinned at his friend. "You and me are building a particle accelerator."

"Oh boy," sighed Bruce.


	20. Fragile hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An explosion causes a bit of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter feels a bit jumbled but I hope I get it across anyway..

After a while just sleeping got very boring. Dreams started repeating, memories surfaced in more painful ways, and simple thoughts became obsessions. Loki took several deep breaths, letting the cold air go far down in his hardy Jotun lungs. 

He knew he needed rest. He must heal, because he was going to do it again. 

Another teleportation was clearly necessary. There was no other way. He had finally found something, someone, several someones, to care for and he was going to hold on. 

_You can't take it from me this time_

Now when they were further from the star called Sol and the greater planets disrupting the magical fields, Loki was sure that he could do much better. He was not going to fail Anthony this time. 

All he needed was rest. 

With another deep breath he turned his healing magic inwards. 

\----------

There was so much blood. 

Steve, Bucky and Kree had been removing the metal paneling walls from one lesser used corridors to be used as material for the particle accelerator. Leo was standing by with translations and technical knowledge. 

It had been a mad two days were everyone had been trying to find as much scrap metal and non-essential spare parts as possible. Kree had volunteered to help, he obviously wasn't a personality made for sitting around while others worked. 

He had watched a bit of television, but had complained about JARVIS' bad skills at sub-texting. Language wasn't just translation word for word, there were nuances, and grammar, especially grammar. Kree had clearly not been a teacher in his former forgotten life and soon grew very tired of making corrections. Patience wasn't one of his virtues. 

Bruce had suggested that they could show him children's shows. They weren't as complicated to translate and might learn Kree something about human culture and language. Bruce himself had learned a quite decent Portuguese while watching Sesame Street. He had ignored Tiny pointing out that it was this decent Portuguese that had named the dog Cow. 

Most of the building material for the particle accelerator was to be scavenged from the alien lifeboat. They needed more though. Tony had been really good in not packing too much extra weight, but some of Heidrun's fixtures, like some of the walls, were mostly to cover up wires and pipes. 

Later Tony would tell them that it was an almost microscopic meteorite that gotten into one of the gas lines because of the Teleportation and gotten stuck in one of the filters. Whatever it was, there was an explosion. 

Bucky was lucky that he had already lost an arm, because if he hadn't he would have. The debris had lodged themselves deep in the metal. His finger and hand movements, except for the thumb and parts of the forefinger that worked on a system of their own, were gone. 

Kree and Leo had only gotten some superficial cuts. Mostly because Steve have thrown himself in front of them and caught most of the blast with his back and right side. 

There was a long thin pipe pierced through his ribcage. His right lung wasn't working properly and breathing was difficult. It reminded him of the asthma attacks he had when he was younger. He felt no pain in his chest. It was the smaller nicks and bruises that were painful. 

Then again, he thought as he stared up into Bucky's hard face with soft grey eyes, those nicks and bruises might not be that small. 

Bucky was holding him down with his good arm, angling Steve so that he lay still on the floor on his left side. 

"Don't move, Stevie," he whispered, his voice not hiding his panic as well as his mimics. "Don't move." 

Steve had no intention of moving, but it was getting hard not to. Something deep inside him was urging him to fight, to protect, to _Do something, we are under attack!_. 

Bucky had blood smeared on his chin, there was no cut there, it had to be Steve's blood. Except for his broken prosthetics Bucky seemed perfectly fine, but Steve needed to be sure. He tried to move his right arm, his shoulder radiated pain but he had to touch Bucky, feel him. 

A strong blue hand took hold of arm, forcing it down, holding it in place. Steve could easily have fought the pressure off, but he accepted defeat. Soft foreign words were spoken calmly over his head in a deep voice. 

He felt like he was going to sleep. 

Then there were shouts, heavy footfalls, machinery rattling, hydrolics hissing, hands all over him, more pain. Steve recognised Tony's and Kingsley's voices but not their words. There was a robot beeping. He could feel himself being moved, a pair of lips and three-day stubble being pressed against his forehead, a hand in his hand. 

Bright lights. More moving around. _one, two, three, lift_ Pain. He couldn't feel his toes, his fingers were numb. A worried female voice crying out. More beeping noises. _his heart is bleeding_ Bucky? Were was Bucky? I lov- Fuck, that fucking hurt like fucking fuck. _he's healing too fast, I can't..._ His mouth tasted of pennies.

 _You shouldn't put pennies in your mouth, sweetheart, they are dirty and if you swallow it you can't buy any sweets.... Yes, Mommy... I like the red ones... They are so red... I want to share them with Bucky... Mommy?_

\----------

"It's a really small dosage," said Bruce holding up the small bottle to the light. "Are you sure it's enough?"

"It has to be," Tony sighed adjusting the monitors without making any difference. "Loki was planning to use it on all of us. There's nine people left who hasn't been given it, ten if you count the dog, so the dosage must have been a tenth of what is left in the bottle."

They were standing next to Steve's bed in the Med-bay. Tony was in the process of carefully detaching the damaged metal arm from Bucky's artificial shoulder. Bucky himself almost seemed unaware of what was going on. He was holding Steve's hand and staring dully ahead at nothing. 

The soldier had been sleeping for almost three hours now. The pipe was gone, all cuts were sewn or bandaged, and his entire torso was wrapped up in white gauze. He was hooked up to a heart-monitor, a brainwave scanner, a slow morphine drip, and a bag of saline solution. 

There was an oxygen mask fastened over the lower part of his face. Steve didn't need the respirator anymore, he had been able to breathe by himself for the last thirty minutes. It was still standing by as a precaution though. 

"You count the dog?" Bruce blinked.

"Of course I do," Tony huffed. "Just because he's a dog doesn't mean he's not a member of the crew. He deserves to understand aliens as much as we do. What?"

"Tony," Bruce laughed and shook his head. "If you were a girl I could consider marrying you."

"Good thing I'm a boy then, because I have a very jealous boyfriend that probably can turn you into a frog, and then were would we be? The closest thing we have onboard to a princess is Loki himself and I don't think he would kiss you since it was he who turned you into a frog to start with. Though I guess Jane is technically a princess even if she's not married to Thor..."

"Tony, stop rambling."

"Right, sorry. Having a bit of trouble with my inner monologue."

To say the least. After coming out of his depression Tony had become even more vocal. It wasn't like he had a good verbal filter before, but somehow it had gotten even worse. Especially when he was nervous and emotional. 

Bruce glanced over to the Freeze Machine. Loki was still inside. They hadn't been able to wake him. The monitors told them he was in a state closer to hibernation than to sleep. It had only been by pure luck that Tony had discovered that some of the spell hiding Loki's stash in their room had dropped because of it. 

Loki wasn't going to be happy with them for giving the potion to Steve without his permission. 

But Steve had been dying, for real. The pipe had punctured his right lung and broken four of his ribs, one of the broken ribs had pushed against his heart. The super-serum in his blood made him heal four times faster than a normal human. Some of the heart tissue had gotten caught in the healing bone and ruptured. 

Kingsley had done his best, which was extremely good, to keep the damage at a minimum while Tony ran to fetch the potion. Meanwhile Bruce and Jane had tried to wake Loki, but soon realised that it couldn't be done. 

JARVIS had made an attempt to try to stop them, something about a procedure that Loki had, but had quickly given in when realising it was a matter of life or death. There were no heart transplants available on a small ship drifting in outer space, especially not for super-soldiers with high metabolism. 

Tony breathed out as the arm finally unhinged. They had done a good job putting it on. 

Bruce looked to Bucky who shifted slightly over the loss of weight to his shoulder. 

"Do you need anything?" he asked. "Something to drink or eat?"

Bucky shook his head. 

"We need to get back to the lab," Bruce squeezed Steve's arm. "But we'll be monitoring from there."

"I'll get this back to you as soon as I can," said Tony holding the arm in his own arms like a baby. 

They left without Bucky acknowledging them. Kingsley gave them a small waive from his desk from where he was writing a report on Steve's file. They were over five light-hours from Earth, but still there were reports and paperwork to do. 

Halfway between the Med-bay and the lab they met up with Darcy. She was carrying a tray with a large cup of steaming soup and some sandwiches. Kree was following her close behind. He had a few small scratches from the explosion on his face but nothing that had needed attentions. 

"How is he?" Kree asked Bruce. 

"Improving," Bruce sighed. "He's sleeping." 

They hadn't told Kree about the Asgardian potion. When Kree asked about their language skills they had explained it with studying along with some magic help. It was a very plausible explanation that Kree seemed to accept since Jemma was clearly studying the language, and Loki had already reviled himself as a magician. Bruce turned to Darcy. 

"What's this?"

"I thought Bucky might be hungry," Darcy smiled sadly at Bruce and walked on. "I'll just go and give this to him. See you later."

Kree looked after her, but then seemed to decide to follow Bruce and Tony instead. He was momentarily distracted by the arm that Tony was holding, but then turned his attention to Tony himself. 

"I have been told you are the commander of this ship," he said. 

"Yeah," Tony shrugged. "It's mostly just a fancy title though, we're kind of a democracy."

"I understand," Kree gave a short nod. 

"How's the hole in the head?" asked Tony conversationally. "Remember anything?"

Bruce cringed, but Kree didn't seem insulted. 

"I still have no knowledge of myself," the tall alien shook his head. "But I have learned knowledge and my body remembers how to fight, I must have been a great warrior."

A disgraced warrior, thought Bruce to himself. The only thing more dangerous was a fanatic. They still hadn't figured out why Kree had been in an unmarked grave, and why, or how, he even was still alive after being sent of as dead. Bruce was suddenly glad there was a hole in the blue man's head. The green man inside Bruce agreed. 

"Cool," Tony nodded. "You know anything about propulsion, engineering, or advanced physics?"

"I do not think so."

"You can have body-memories of that too," Tony shrugged. "It's worth a shot." 

They walked into the big lab, neither of them were really thinking about the earlier decision not to bring Kree into any of the critical rooms. It was first when Jemma looked up from her work with the Thor-energy-converter and gasped that Bruce remembered. 

Kree looked around, but there was no interest lighting up in his eyes. Machines, blueprints, and computers didn't seem to excite him as much as fighting. It was a worrying thought. 

"He saved me," said Kree in a thoughtful voice, his eyes resting on a holographic imagine of the particle accelerator though it was obvious he didn't understand it. "If he hadn't stood himself in front of me, that rod would have pierced me instead."

Kree motioned to a hole in his borrowed shirt. He lifted the fabric up to show them his blue muscular hairless chest. Just above his heart, or at least were hearts were placed on humans, there was a deep purple bruise with and almost black circular imprint in the centre. 

"I feel that my honour demands me to repay this debt to him," Kree pulled down his shirt again. 

Bruce hadn't missed neither Jemma's nor Tony's slightly hungry looks at the blue muscles, he too was impressed but purely for aesthetic reasons. He wasn't jealous of the alien's good physique even though in his human form Bruce was a bit 'comfortably squishy' as Darcy put it. 

He admitted he had put on a little weight in the last year, but that's what happens when you no longer are daily running from secret agencies, paramilitaries, and real militaries, through the forests of the world. His only exercise now was a thirty minute yoga routine in the morning and when Hulk paid a visit. Bruce was comfortable with his own body, and could appreciate others as they were as well. 

Tony had placed Bucky's arm on the holographic table and was letting JARVIS do scans and suggestions for repairs and some improvements. Bucky had had the arm attached for several month, its little black box was full of information. 

The small device only registered two things, arm-motion and location. It was easy enough to guess Bucky's actions based on that. Broad swift movements in the gym, small repetitive in the kitchen, circular over the body in the shower... Bruce looked away from the list as it came to Bucky's bedroom, he didn't need to know. Though Tony's grin said much of it. 

Everything was written in English so it didn't hold Kree's attention. Instead he moved over to Jemma and her machine. 

"Weapon?" he asked articulating the word slowly, mindful that she didn't speak the language well, which was nice of him. 

"Engine," she said back with a shy smile. "Transformatoring," she then struggled to say, it wasn't a real word but she smiled proudly for being able to say it.

Kree nodded, again his interest lost over it not being a weapon. 

"It's not a priority until Thor comes back," said Tony walking over to the particle accelerator plans. "We need more materials for the casing."

Bruce saw Kree blink by the mention of Thor's name, but what ever emotion it came from was impossible to tell. They hadn't told him about Thor either. 

He glanced at the monitor depicting Steve in the Med-bay. There was no changes. Darcy was slowly feeding Bucky soup with a spoon since his one remaining hand was still holding Steve's. Bruce smiled fondly because Darcy must have been quite persistent in making Bucky eat if he accepted being fed like a child. 

Then Bruce noticed Tony looking at another monitor showing Leo, Jane, and You making patchwork repairs after the explosion. Jane was moving slowly because of her belly and more often gave instructions to the bot than doing it herself. Coulson was there as well, alternating between helping and taking notes. 

Tony sighed. Bruce knew his friend was having bad bouts with his conscience. 

"We'll have to scavenge the main corridor, it won't be pretty and JARVIS' will have to show some of his sexy parts, but it's the safest alternative. We can't risk another explosion so close to the haul." He nodded to himself before walking towards the door. "Jem, go relive Jane, she needs to rest. Bruce, check the radiation levels in the affected area. JARVIS, prepare my indoor suit, get me Dummy, then..,"

Tony continued to talk fast and give orders and instructions to JARVIS as he left the room and walked walked away. 

"He says commander is just a title," Kree said slowly. "And he says he isn't in charge, but he still acts like he is."

"That's what makes him so good," nodded Bruce. "Come on, I've got some work to do so I have to leave you with Clint. I'll ask him to show you the Muppets and Sesame Street, it's some of my favourite TV-shows."

\-------- 

_Remember this?_

Loki didn't remember any pain. Not because he didn't feel it, but because he was beyond it. Anyway, the torture the Other was inflicting on him now wasn't physical, they had far since moved passed that. Or was it only moments ago?

Time had stopped existing, Loki was sure if it. At the very least it had stopped moving forwards. Perhaps it moved backwards, repeating itself in swirly loops stitched together with memories of lost times.

He really wished this was another dream, because if it was real he was already dead. 

Even blinking took a strain. His red Jotun eyes reacted badly to the intense heat in the room he was chained up in, but his sight was clear as ever, maybe even clearer. The wound in his gut was open again though he was certain that he hadn't even been stabbed yet. 

_This is how we persuade those who defy us,_ said the voice of the Other. _You don't need persuasion, do you?_

Loki used the aching and strained muscles in his neck to rise his head, look past the nails deterring him to fall forward, and the red stained iron bars, to see the Other standing there. He had his dark hood on, his steel-mask only barely visible. 

There was another man there as well. Loki recognised him immediately even though he had a black leather armour and black greasy war paint on his blue skin. Their eyes met. 

_"No,"_ Loki remembered the Kree saying in a cold hard voice. _"I do not."_


	21. New truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve wakes with some unfortunate changes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm focusing on my Christmas fics at the moment my buffer-chapters are dwindling. I will try to continue posting Sundays though the holidays.

The bed was too big and the body pillow was a bad substitute when the body it was supposed to be substituting wasn't on the other side of it. 

The drugs he was on were winding down but not enough. Kingsley had opposed to giving Tony any downers, arguing for the health of his liver and fear of sudden mood swings. The best was to let nature take it's course. 

Screw nature, Tony thought. He had a machine in his heart, an alien in his head, magic in his veins, he hadn't touched his secret stash of alcohol in over two months, and he was trying to build a particle accelerator out of limited amounts of scrap metal in the middle of fucking space. What was nature about that?

"Sir," JARVIS said smoothly. "Your presence is required in the Med-bay."

"Loki?" he asked hopefully even though he knew that it was far too early. 

"Captain Rogers seems to be having problems with the side effects of the potion."

"Side effects?" Tony got to his feet. 

He tried to think of any side effects, except for the language skills, that he had experienced. It was quite hard since he had been given a Moment of Clarity at the same time as the potion, and Loki had said that wasn't advised. That was why he had gotten the backlash in his depression and PTSD, right?

"Please hurry, sir. Your suit is on its way to you."

"Is it that bad?"

"It's for your own protection."

Tony frowned and got out of the bedroom. He hurried in a jog towards the elevator. It started its decent before even the doors were closed. Iron Man suit engulfed him after only walking four steps out on the Med-bay floor. 

Clint, Leo, Bruce, and Darcy, he thought. Neither of them had complained about any side effects of the potion. All of their things came from the Moment of Clarity too...ooh! Only those who had gotten the potion had gotten the Emotional Clarity...

Good one, Tony, a bit slow on the uptake there. Some genius you are. 

Fuck, Loki, you bastard. You lying, deceiving, son of a bitch. Why the fuck didn't you tell us?

Tony was ready to blast the Freeze Machine open as soon as he stepped inside the Med-bay, but those thoughts were soon gone when he was forcefully pushed aside by a bare-chested Steve coming out the doors and running down the corridor. 

The man was quickly followed by Bucky, Kingsley, and Clint. Bucky's chin was covered in blood and he looked a bit lopsided with still only one arm, but that didn't stop him from running after his boyfriend and screaming Steve's name though. 

Tony watched them turn right at the end of the corridor, Clint turned left. 

He glanced inside the Med-bay. 

The beds were upturned. All the things that had been previously connected to Steve was either laying and/or leaking on the floor. There were several stains of blood there as well. 

Darcy was shakily in the process of getting to her feet. She caught sight of Tony.

"Go!" she made a frantic movement with her hand to urge him on. "Go after him!"

She had a forming pink bruise on her left cheekbone but seemed otherwise unharmed enough for Tony to obey her. He moved on. 

The hud inside Tony's helmet efficiency showed Steve's whereabouts on the ship. The airlock, he was trying to open it. He wasn't going to be able to, not by force anyway, that thing was built for to stand Hulk after all. 

But then again, the airlock was mainly constructed to keep Hulk contained within it, and of course to keep space outside it. Tony hadn't put much thought in actually stopping someone deliberately wanting to get out through it. 

But then again, again, JARVIS wasn't going to let that happen. 

"Airlock open," said JARVIS. 

"What?" Tony turned the corner to see the large circular door open, Steve slink through, and then the door closing. "What are you doing?"

"Containing the threat, sir. As per orders," JARVIS answered calmly. 

"Who's orders?" 

"Mine," said Steve from the comm, his voice was horse. "I must protect you from me."

His face was clearly visible through the thick glass. There was blood on his lips and tears in his eyes. His muscular chest heaving with uncharacteristically hard breaths. Tony let the helmet retract down into the suit. 

"I... I can't..." Steve breathed hard and turned abruptly away, facing to outer door, taking a step towards it. "I can't stand it!"

"Steve! No! Stop!" Tony shouted. "JARVIS, ditch the gravity!"

"Yes, sir."

The next moment Steve was floating in the air inside the airlock. He screamed in anger and frustration. 

Tony looked to who Kingsley was unwrapping his left hand from its bandage to then use to press over Bucky's bleeding mouth. Bucky took it from him and held it for himself. The white fabric soaked to red. 

"You can actually turn off the gravity?" asked the surgeon continuing to unwrap his other hand as well. 

"It's actually not turning off the gravity as much as turning on the anti-gravity... We don't need that."

He had said that last thing to Clint who was coming towards them with a tranquilliser gun, not the Hulk one but the second closest to it. 

"With all due respect," Clint cocked the gun while looking at the floating shirtless man on the other side of the glass. "You weren't there when he woke up. He hit me _and_ Darcy, upturned the room, and fucking tried to bite Bucky's face off."

"No he didn't," Bucky spat some blood on the floor before letting Kingsley give him the other bandage to press on his lip. "He kissed me."

Tony could clearly see his cut open lower lip now. 

"That's some kiss." 

"You are going to need some stitches," said Kingsley moving his half-melted fingers over Bucky's injury. "Quite a love bite. Why?"

"Because he's mine!" screamed Steve from his now upside down position. "Don't you touch him! I will kill you!"

Bucky grunted.

Natasha, Darcy and Bruce arrived. Bruce was holding Darcy's hand, Darcy was holding an ice pack to her cheek. Nat was holding another tranquilliser gun. 

"What's wrong with him?" asked Bruce, his clear green eyes fixed on Steve. 

"Make it stop!" screamed Steve pressed his hands to the side of his head. "Put me down!"

"Do it," sighed Tony with a gesture to one of the computer sensors. 

The anti-gravity turned off, Steve fell to the metal floor with a seemingly painful thump. 

Coulson, Kree, and Sam had arrived as well, Tony was sure the the others were watching through the monitors. Sam hurried forward, putting his hands on the glass. 

"What's going on?"

"My head is overflowing," breathed Steve reaching out to him as Captain Kirk in a radiation chamber reaching out to Spock. 

"It's the potion," said Tony, trying to ignore the inappropriate reference he had made. "It has side effects." 

"You are weak!" Steve breathed. "You are all weak. I will make you bow to me! I will... What am I saying? Shut up, shut up, shut up!" He hit himself in the forehead with the butt of his hands. 

"Stop it!" Bucky bumped the glass with his fist. "Stop it now, this isn't you."

"No," Steve looked at him desperately, tears forming in his eyes. "It's not me, but it feels like me. When I see you... I want to own you... And him..." He breathed hard as he pointed to Tony. "I... I..."

He turned away. What ever horror his distressed mind had made up for Tony it was too bad to be said out loud. The man still seemed to have a hold the conscience and morals that made him Captain America. That must make it even worse. 

"I think Loki forgot to tell us something," Tony said as he glanced at Kree, only right then remembering that he was there. 

The blue alien looked slightly curious at the scene, but didn't say anything. Even if some parts of his brain was gone there was nothing to say the remaining parts didn't pose any danger. Tony hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure what he could say out loud anymore. 

"What?" asked Bruce. 

It was clear that Bruce was fighting with himself not to hulk out. He probably would very much to take revenge for Darcy being hit. It was most likely that only the knowledge that Steve wasn't in his right mind was holding him back. Tony telling him his theory would either placate or enrage him, it was hard to tell. 

"I think that the..."

"Pardon me, sir," JARVIS interrupted. "But I must confess that I have not been honest with you in my knowledge of this matter."

"What?" Tony frowned. 

He noticed that Kree didn't understand what JARVIS was saying, the translation was turned off. That was both comforting and worrying at the same time. 

"I have been aiding Loki in his human trials of the potion, and I know that he was most hesitant of giving it to Captain Rogers because of the super soldier serum. Loki feared that the two would mix badly, and as you can see his suspicions were accurate. I tried to warn you before applying the potion, but as it was a matter of life and death, and that it then only was a theory, I conceded to the risk."

JARVIS was covering for Loki about the Clarities, Tony was sure of it. The traitor. 

"Why didn't Loki tell us?" Bruce took a deep calming breath, it was rugged. 

"Because, as always, mortals are weak."

Everyone turned to look at Loki leaning heavily against the wall. He was wearing grey sweatpants and the Slayer-shirt that Tony had ironically given him. His feet were bare, and blue with black toenails. They were strangely arousing, Tony couldn't stop glancing down at them. Loki rolled his eyes at him. 

"You shouldn't be up," said Kingsley in his doctor-voice. 

"How can I sleep when you fools are making so much noise?" Loki pushed off the wall and slowly walked to the airlock to look in on Steve. "Also, you don't seem to manage well without me."

There were frosted footprints on the floor were he had walked. They disappeared quickly in the well-ventilated room. The room temperature was definitely going down as he preceded walking through the room. 

Steve actually growled at him, it was a threatening sound that made Tony shiver inside his suit and Clint take an unconscious step towards Nat. Loki stood firm, at least as firm as his obviously weak body could obey him to do. 

Tony thought of the hibernation state Loki had been in. Logic told that interrupting that state wasn't a good thing. Also they hadn't been able to wake him with Steve dying, and now he was awake because of some noise? 

Tony was angry with Loki for lying to them once again, but he was also deeply worried for his boyfriend's health, and for what this all could mean. 

Loki leaned against the glass, though not as casually as he might wish that he could. Tony could recognise the pain in his movements, and the wary looks he cast around the room. Especially the looks towards Kree. There was real fear there. 

"Can you fix him?" asked Sam. 

"You were such fools to try this without me," Loki sighed. 

"We've established that," said Bruce. "But maybe you should have warned us."

"It was an emergency, Sleeping Beauty," said Tony in a voice that actually managed to be apologetic and accusing at the same time. "And you, to be honest, haven't been all truthful with us."

Loki sighed again, his breath creating frost on the glass. He tensed up as if to shout at them, but then his shoulders dropped even more. 

"I'm sorry, my love," he lightly touched Tony's armoured arm. "I didn't want you to worry. I will tell you the truth..."

"Wait a moment," Tony looked to the nearest surveillance camera. "I want everyone to hear this so there's no misunderstandings later. Hill, are you listening?"

 _"I am"_ said Hill's voice from the comm. _Jane, Jemma, and Leo are with me on the Bridge._

Tony nodded for Loki to continue. Whether it was lies, truths, or half-truths that would be coming out of those blue-tinted lips Tony was going to protect him and the whole team hearing what was said was the first step in doing so.

Loki glanced quickly at Kree, but then he licked his lips and gave Tony a nod.

"As the computer said, I was worried about the mixing between the potion and Rogers' serum. Though, since the potion worked so well on Banner, who has a bastardised version of the serum in him, I didn't feel the need to vent these worries right away to worry you."

Bruce huffed. 'So well' was probably not the right wording, Hulk was now closer to the surface than ever judging by the clear green of his former brown eyes. Darcy had stepped closer to him. Tony still gave Loki another encouraging nod. The words where obvious lies, but he knew he would get the truth in private. 

"My plan was to first try it on Wilson, who share many of the Captain's human traits. Then I was going to give the potion to Barnes who has the closest physical likeness to him. From this I hoped to ascertain my actions with the Captain."

That wasn't a lie. 

"What actions?" asked Nat suspiciously. 

"He talked to us," Bruce gasped. "He talked to us before giving us the potion to put us in a certain mood. He made feel calm and trusting... And then he gave me the Clarity."

Tony saw the sudden panic fill Loki's eyes. Uh-oh.

"Yes, you are right," said Clint. "If the potion was in that chocolate he gave me, I got the Clarity right after as well."

Loki was clearly steering towards an anxiety attack with all that rapid breathing. There was frost spreading slowly on the floor from his feet. Not good. 

"Me too," said Darcy, her voice a bit muffled by the ice pack. 

Tony felt his own panic rise as Loki hit his forehead against the armour's shoulder. 

"They are connected," Bruce looked like he had discovered sliced bread for the first time. "That's it!You have to be in a certain mindset to get the potion, so he gave us the emotional Moment of Clarity."

Loki gave an anguished cry. Tony had no idea what to do. 

_"Oh no,"_ said Jane's voice from the comm. _"I don't think that we should be talking about this."_

"But why?" asked Clint. 

Loki didn't answer, instead he locked eyes with Steve on the other side of the glass. For a moment it looked like they had some kind of connection, not a telepathic one, but an emotional understanding. Tony felt a surge of bitter jealousy in the back of his throat. 

The next moment the understanding had turned to a battle of wills. 

"Because humans are weak," spat Steve from his containment without giving in to Loki. "But I'm still stronger than all of you!"

"Loki," Tony huffed.

He carefully took Loki's chin in his gauntleted hand and gently turned Loki's face to meet his. Loki actually looked grateful. It told much about the state of his health, and of Steve's new mind, that he had feared loosing. 

"Why didn't you tell us?" 

"I can't..." 

"We would have become like him," Clint pointed to Steve with the tranquilliser. "Isn't that right?"

Loki coughed, if Tony hadn't had a hold of him he would have been on the floor. Darcy took a step forward but Bruce, standing firm and still holding her hand, held her back. Loki shook his head and pushed himself away from Tony, he was unsteady on his feet but his back was straight. 

"Why...?" He took a breath. "Why couldn't you just have believed me?"

"Because you lie, babe," Tony sighed. "You promised me not to."

"That was not the promise!" Loki spat, his eyes turning momentarily red. "I promised _you_ , as you did me, not to lie about your relationship. This lie was to save you, all of you. You should have listened to me! Now that Rogers knows the connection between the potion and the Clarity his only cure lies on the hard side of Thor's hammer."

There was a moment of silence. 

"To..." Clint hesitated. "To knock some sense into him?"

"To kill him," said Nat in a hard voice. 

"No!" Bucky clenched his fist. "You have to kill me first."

"Why can't you just give the Clarity to him now?" asked Bruce. 

"You have had three Clarities yourself, Dr Banner," Loki rubbed his nose and seemed slightly surprised that it wasn't bleeding. "You know why. The change on humans happens to what is closest on their minds. What do you think will change on a mind that is closest set on arrogance and concurring?"

"That's the side effects of one drop?" Nat huffed to no one in particular. "That explains Thor's and Loki's attitudes then. Even if it does not affect them as much it must have saturated them for centuries."

"And Odin for millennia," sighed Loki. 

Tony hadn't thought of it that way, mostly because there hadn't been enough time to do so. He remembered the brief feeling he had just after receiving the potion and getting the Moment of Clarity that brought the dark curtain down. It had felt like he could conquer the galaxy. 

"Thor won't actually kill him?" Sam asked. "Would he? I mean they are friends."

"He would do it because they are friends," Loki shook his head. "Rogers can't live like this. Also if Odin finds out that I have given the potion to mortals, we are all dead. I didn't lie about it being close to sacred in Asgard. And if Rogers escapes..." He looked to Kree. "One strong madman can do a lot of damage."

Kree suspiciously looked back at him. Tony could say how much the alien understood of what was said even if most of those who were talking at the moment had the Allspeak. Loki's comment also implied that he knew something about Kree that the others didn't. 

"Damn it!" screamed Bucky and grabbed hold of Loki's shirt, holding him up face to face. "Why did you have to do this in the first place?!"

Tony hurried forward in defence but he wasn't sure if he should to fight of the one-armed man or try to pull Loki to him. Before he could do anything Natasha was aiming the tranquilliser on Bucky. 

"Let him go," she said. "That's my midwife, I need him in one piece."

She was clearly speaking Russian, but the Allspeak made it sound to Tony's ears like any language easy as English. Tony would love to experiment, but now wasn't the time. 

Tony caught Loki as Bucky let go. He offered Iron Man's arm as support, Loki only held on for a second before letting go and standing for himself. Bucky's hand was red and stiff from cold, he seemed to ignore it. 

"The potion heals and vaccinates, right?" asked Clint obviously trying to straighten things out to calm Bucky down. "That's why you are giving it to us? Steve would have died without it,"

"Not much use if Thor is going to kill him," muttered Bucky. 

"And the Allspeak," continued Clint. "We can't survive out here without it."

"There are mechanical translators," said Kree calmly. "Most people have them."

Tony just looked at him. 

"Tony, stop salivating," smirked Loki. "We'll get you one when we get to a trading post, even though it will have no use to you. And as for why I'm giving you the potion..." he sighed deeply, admitting defeat. "I happen to be in love with a human."

"Babe..." Tony felt a strange mixture of guilt, nervousness, and happiness. 

"As Rogers said, humans are weak, they break easily, and have short lives. By giving Anthony the potion I have just about doubled his remaining lifespan. I could have given him ten times that, but he would never leave any of you behind."

"Fuck it," Tony breathed and pulled Loki to meet his lips in a closed-mouthed but hard kiss. 

It was excruciatingly cold, and made his lips a bit numb, but it was worth it. 

"Anthony!" Loki blushed, his fingers holding the edge of the suit's collar seemingly not know if he was to push away or keep holding on. 

"Sorry, but you brought that on to yourself."

Everyone was silent after this. Bucky was leaning his forehead against the glass, Steve was wantonly glaring at him from the other side. Clint had taken Nat's hand.

"But..." Sam cleared his throat. "But what are we going to do? We can't let Thor kill Steve,"

"I kill myself before that happens," Steve hissed. "I'll open the airlock and..."

"Hold it!" Tony shouted. "Nobody is killing anybody. Loki with fix this."

"I told you that the Clarity won't work," Loki glared at him. "He will subconsciously hide away critical emotions. I can't give the potion to anyone else now either, because you all know about it."

"And I'm telling you that you will fix this," Tony glanced at Clint whose eyes widened in sudden surprise and fear. 

"Tony, no," whispered the archer.

Tony ignored him and concentrated on Loki. 

"Remember when you, Bucky, and Clint went to that military base back on Earth? The one with the Hellicarrier spare parts?"

"Yes?" Loki frowned. 

"Remember Clint sneaking off? There was an abandoned secret SHEILD lab on that base, one that neither the military, government, or Hydra had found... They had a special artefact of yours there. One from the Battle of New York."

"Oh my god," whispered Bruce.

"It's onboard?" Nat placed a protective hand over her belly and looked angrily at Clint. "You knew and didn't tell me?"

Loki just stared at Tony for several seconds, then he took a deep breath. 

"No wonder I've been having nightmares."


	22. Old things returned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter than usual, sorry, but my Christmas fics are taking up most of my attention at the moment. I will do my best to try to meet next weeks deadline as well.

"It gives you nightmares?"

"Of course it does, you fool."

Loki had followed Anthony to a back room to the storage room next to the loading bay. The entrance was hidden behind a wall-panel that in its turn hid an electronic box. The box had the Stark-logo on it, and big red stickers warning about taking care and of deathly electrocution. 

Anthony had used a yellow screwdriver to flip some of the switches to open a hatch to a machine that scanned his eye before unlocking a door using the screwdriver again. 

The room itself was just big enough for them to stand next to each other only slightly touching arms. Loki angled away from that subconsciously, and not only because his skin was cold. Consciously he was more focused on the Spear and the inside the glass case before him, and the shining blue Stone in its middle. 

Anthony gave him a irritated look. He had taken off the Iron Man suit and left it to assemble itself in whatever place it was usually stored. Underneath he had only been wearing his ordinary sleeping attire. He had looked so vulnerable like that in Loki's eyes. 

On their way down to the small room Dummy had delivered his master an extra pair of trousers, shoes, and a jacket. Loki knew far too well that he was lowering the temperature with his mere presence. He was surprised that Anthony was delicate enough to not joke about it. 

"I'm not a fool," Anthony continued. "I brought this, didn't I? I could have left it on Earth to fall in some grabby Hydra hands. But I was smart, left a decoy copy, and now we have this. Can it save Steve?"

Loki breathed. His human might be a fool but he was a smart fool, and those were rare. Was he lucky or cursed to find one for himself? Probably both. 

He looked at the staff again. He didn't like the memories it conjured. Though he doubted anybody would. The others had been quite upset over the reveal before Anthony led Loki away. They were probably shaking in their boots right now, though probably more of anger than of fright. 

Nobody had stopped them though. 

Loki wondered what Thor would have done if he had been there. Probably tried to crush the stone with his hammer, resulting in the entire ship blowing up. Idiot. 

"I've had horrible nightmares," Loki continued to breathe with icy breath. "Memories, madness, restlessness. Everything has been woven together, confusing me. Most of it very likely because this object has been in my close vicinity without my knowledge."

"R-really?"

"If l had only known..."

He could have spared himself so much of the pain and confusion. He wouldn't have made such rash decisions, understood his emotions better... They would still be there of course, but he would have understood why... He wouldn't have rushed...

"Well..." Anthony looked at the staff as well. "Only Clint and I knew we have it, we thought it might be bad for you to know about it."

"It is bad for me."

He wouldn't have panicked and pushed them so impatiently forward into empty space... They were stranded in nowhere because of his thoughtless impatience. Loki sighed. 

"It's interfering with my mind whether I know about it or not. At least now I know why I haven't been feeling quite like myself."

And the Kree. Had that dream been a memory or a nightmare? Loki's memories from his torture prior to his submission were not reliable. It was possible that someone had passed through the dungeon as he was being... persuaded, but if that was a Kree, or even this particular Kree, was impossible to say. 

Either way he wouldn't be able to confirm it without bringing up more pain, or reminding Kree about somethings that was possibly better left alone. If Kree really had been there, with The Other... And if that part of his brain was _burned_ out... 

What kind of force in the universe was capable of literally burning away something so precise inside your head and still let you live? He looked at the Stone and it's cool blue fire, so similar to his own magic but so much more. That kind of force could burn. 

The Kree knew about it the potion now, maybe not in detail, but he definitely knew about it. What would he do if he was to know about the Stone as well? 

"I'm sorry, babe," Anthony looked like he wanted to take his hand but changed the movement to hold the sleeve of Loki's shirt instead. "I was going to tell you eventually, but you didn't seem well and I didn't want to put any extra stress on you..."

Cause and effect. His madness or his distress, which came first? Loki sighed again. Everything was so mixed up in his head. He had been a bit of a mess back in New York, even without the staff. He couldn't really blame Anthony recklessness for everything. 

"How aware are you that you have put us all in terrible danger by doing this?"

"How much danger?" Anthony sounded a bit hesitant as he played with the fabric of Loki's sleeve. 

The answer to Loki's question was obviously 'well, kinda maybe a little aware'.

"This Stone is one of the five most powerful items in the known universe," Loki tore himself away from the light and turned to look down on his foolish human. "It has the power of altering and controlling minds. The staff itself is forged with very dark magic and is also quite powerful on its own."

On the other hand it would give Loki some needed strength to heal better. It wasn't perfect since the stone only worked on the mind, not the body, but the latter usually followed the former. The trick was not to overdo it. Loki hoped he was still proficient at such tricks. 

"It will attract unwanted attention to us."

"Right..." Anthony sucked on his lower lip, his eyes darting around the room before meeting Loki's again. "So... can you fix Steve with it?"

"Yes," Loki rolled his eyes at the obvious 'cute' face the human was giving him. "Yes, I can. But I'm not sure any of you are going to like it."

"It's our only choice, isn't it?"

Loki nodded. In a strange way this might be a good thing. With the Moment of Clarity he had to manipulate the subject to the right mindset with, admittedly somewhat educated, guesswork. With the staff and Stone it would be more direct. 

On the bad side of that equation would be the fear and temptation of the power of altering minds could bring. The Stone was alive and had a mind of its own. That mind was a very simple one, yes, but it didn't make it any less dangerous. Or influential. Or tempting...

Anthony was opening the protective glass case by another electronic lock. Loki could easily have crushed the glass if he wanted to. 

\------

"I thought that I knew the meaning of the phrase 'being at war with myself', but now I know I was wrong."

Bucky raised his head at this. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the airlock. He knew even though he couldn't see Steve through the thick glass window from this position he knew the man was in a similar position on the other side. 

Also there was a small monitor with surveillance in his periphery. He wondered for a moment if Steve was cold, only wearing trousers and nothing else. Steve wasn't the one to freeze easily, not with his strength and metabolism, but the airlock was definitely colder than the rest of the ship being so close to the haul. 

Sam and Kree were there waiting with him as well, the others had left to help clean up the mess in the Med-bay. Tony had taken Loki away somewhere, hopefully they were working on a cure for Steve, though judging by the hard look on Clint's face, it wasn't going to be pretty. The archer hadn't been forthcoming with what he knew about it. 

Nobody had seemed happy about it. 

Kingsley had momentarily come back to give Bucky two small stitches on the left side of his lower lip and a bandage that covered and restricted half his chin. Bucky liked a bit of occasional lip biting in a kiss but this had been more than that. 

Steve had marked him. _Because you are mine._

"It's not as bad as it looks," The Surgeon had said before leaving with his medical kit. "The bandage is just so you don't forget yourself and open your mouth to wide."

It hurt, but Bucky was already too used to pain. He wasn't as strong as Steve, or healed as fast, since he was only a unauthorised copy of a super soldier, but he had more experience. Too much of it. 

"I'm always at war with myself," said Bucky slightly muffled by the bandage. 

Sam gave him a weak understanding smile from were he was sitting on the floor across from him. Kree, who only understood Steve's part of the conversation didn't react, not that Bucky thought the alien would. Kree was only there because he felt an obligation to Steve for saving his life. 

"Everything inside me is telling me to fight," breathed Steve. "To subjugate, to take... But still I know it's wrong. I hurt you... I wanted... When I first came in here I thought of opening the outer door. Tony shouldn't have stopped me. He is weak. If he was any kind of man he would have killed me. Always jealous! His father loved me more than him. Weakness. I hate it."

Bucky sighed and rubbed his face, but there was no hand touching his skin. He didn't have a left arm for a hand to be on. He could feel it hanging from his shoulder even if it wasn't there. Phantom limb, he hated those words. 

"I'm sorry," Steve sounded close to tears. "I don't know what's wrong with me. My mind is telling me two different things."

Kree shifted slightly were he stood, as he was smelling something irregular in the air. Bucky watched the animalistic movement. When the blue man spoke it was in a suspicious whisper, like he knew something was wrong without being able to put his finger on it. 

"Where?" asked Steve, his voice focused again. 

"What?" asked Sam looking a bit alarmed over the shift in the room. 

Bucky felt the same, the monitor showed Steve pacing. 

"He said a great power has been awakened. I want to fight it!"

"Could it be the cure?" Sam got to his feet, Bucky followed. "Something magic? Is that's what he's feeling? They were very secretive about what it was."

Bucky couldn't feel anything other change other than Kree's tension and weariness, though this was more than enough to put him on edge. He had learned to trust other people's feelings and instincts quite well since he didn't have all if his own in balance. 

"Sirs," JARVIS said politely from one of the speakers above. "I must kindly ask you to leave this area."

Kree frowned upwards, it was clear he didn't understand what the computer was saying. 

"Why?" Bucky asked. 

"It's for your own safety, Sergeant."

"I'm staying with Steve."

"Yes," said Sam. "If that is the cure, then Loki is going to use it on us as well when we get the potion."

Bucky glanced at him. Was Sam really still aboard with taking the potion after what happened to Steve and what Loki had told them? Then again, Sam wasn't already biologically enhanced. The thought of fifty more years added to your lifespan, universal language skills, and a good vaccination, all in one was very seductive. But was it worth the risk of loosing your mind?

So far fifty years, seven languages, and being an enhanced super soldier hadn't done anything to Bucky that he wouldn't trade for a settled mind. He failed to see how adding more to that would be of any benefaction. 

But then again, if Steve was with him...

"Sirs," JARVIS sounded a bit more patient. "Part of the problem facing the potion is that if you are too prepared for it the so called 'cure' won't work properly."

"I don't care. I'm not leaving him."

"I don't need your pity!" spat Steve. 

Bucky ignored him because he knew it wasn't Steve talking. 

"I'm not leaving," he took a breath. 

"If you not choose to leave Loki will need to administer the potion to you as well."

Damnit, wasn't it this what Bucky had wanted to avoid? More people messing around inside his head. 

"I'll do it with him. Give me the potion too."

"Buck..." breathed Steve. 

The computer seemed to pause. 

"I will dispatch this to Loki," JARVIS sounded like he was sighing. 

"Are you sure?" asked Sam taking a hesitant step forward. 

"Yes." Again Bucky tried to rub his face but failed, so he switched hands, he was starting to get irritated over this. "I'm with Steve to the end of the line."

"I don't need your support," huffed Steve angrily. 

"But you still want it," Bucky put his fingers to the bandage, his lip was starting to seriously ache after moving it too much. 

Sam reached out his hand to Kree's upper arm, seemingly as a dign that they should leave. Kree caught his hand before it reached him. Sam frowned momentarily with a bit of pain but he was released almost immediately. 

Kree said something in an angry tone. If it was 'Don't touch me' or 'I'm staying' was impossible to tell, Steve didn't help with translation. 

"Loki agreed," announced JARVIS. "You will be given the potion as well."

\----------------- 

Loki noticed the initial hesitation when Anthony gave him the staff, but he also saw the resolution behind the human's eyes. The two conflicting feelings both stemmed from how much he cared for his friends. It was touching and Loki tried to keep this in mind as he closed his hand around the golden metal. 

The sweet promise of power that surged through his body was almost unimaginable. The near physical pain of the bad memories it gave him almost didn't matter. He let the Stone touch his mind, it recognised him, welcomed him back, showed him the universe.... 

The first thing Loki did was to restore himself with the staff. Magic was magic, even if it came from darkness it had the same quality. He felt a deep bliss spread through his body as the ice withdrew and his Jotun side could again relax behind the asgardian image. 

"Babe?" a hesitant voice asked. "You gave a really creepy smile on your face and I don't know if I supposed to shoot you or strip naked."

Loki realised his eyes had been closed, he opened them and looked at Anthony. 

"I think..." Loki took a steadying breath "...I don't think the shooting will be necessary, as for the naked part it's entirely up to you..." Another breath. "...Though I believe your friends would feel more safer if you kept your clothes on."

"Phew," Anthony laughed. "I thought I lost you there."

"Don't you trust me?" 

"I trust you to do the right thing in the end, Babe. It's how you get to the end that worries me."


	23. Sort of interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay, but that's Christmas for you. (And the discovery of Attack on Titan and Bleach, but that's another story)

Tony looked over his glorious masterpiece. 

He was outside, floating in space. The mark sixty-nine suit was attached to Heidrun by a long cord. It wasn't really needed since the suit was fully capable of space flight, but he had been forbidden by his teammates to go outside without it. 

Heidrun's engines were now offline, waiting to reboot with the upgrades. Four days of hard labour had finally paid off. Tony was exhausted but in a very good way.   
_  
"How does it look?" _asked Bruce over the comm.

"Glorious," said Tony in reverence. "The particle accelerator is online with the engines, the engines are optimised, and I'm a fucking genius."  
 _  
"Hrm."_

Tony rolled his eyes with a fond smile. 

"You are a fucking genius too, Bruce."  
 _  
"Hrm."_

"So are Jane, Leo, Jemma, and everyone aboard. We are all fucking genius, even the dog."  
 _  
"Why thank you, Tony,"_ Bruce had a smile in his voice. _"I knew you cared about the little people."_

"Hey, that's just the kind of guy I am," Tony took a last look before letting the cord start to reel him in to the ship. "Are you sure we can't reach light speed with this? My calculations..."  
 _  
"Those kind of calculations are useless on a molecular level, and you know it. Eighty percent of light speed is good enough."_

"Ninety, at least."  
 _  
"Not if you want the inner haul-repairs to hold."_

"Spoilsport." 

_"Get back here, we got good news."_

"On my way."

Tony hated their limitations. The three biggest ones being their Earth-mindset, their lack of materials, and their bandaid-repetitions. This particle accelerator engine wasn't the best solution, but it was the best for now. 

Eighty percent of light speed was considerably better than their previous speed of a light hour a month. Their travel time to the next solar system was now reduced down to about ten years. Tony of course hoped to shorten that down considerably, this was only the first step. 

Tony's metal boots connected magnetically to the haul. It never got old, standing there, looking at the vastness of space before him. 

He hadn't had too much time enjoy in the view though, the hatch next to him opened. JARVIS was obviously not in a waiting mood. The computer was as impatient as he was to test the new muscles. Difference was that for JARVIS it was his actual muscles. 

Well inside the suit folded away from Tony. Bruce and Jane were there to meet him, both looking very excited. Actually they looked like Christmas and Steve's birthday happened on the same day. Cow was there as well and licked Tony's hand as it was free of the gauntlet, Tony scratched him behind the ears. 

Jane was leaning on Bruce's arm for support, she was having trouble with standing up for long bouts of time because of pain in her back and ankles. Still it didn't discourage her from being on top of her game. 

"Where's Loki?" asked Tony. 

"In your room," said Bruce. "He said he needed to rest."

"Did he give the potion to Jemma?" 

"Yeah," Jane sighed and hugged her belly. "Just me and Nat left now."

Tony nodded. They had all agreed to not give the potion to the two pregnant women even if the Stone was safer than a Clarity. It wasn't worth the risk even if it was small. Also, not everyone were completely comfortable with Loki wielding it. 

If Loki was in their room it meant that the staff was back in its case behind the loading bay, as per their deal. Tony checked the monitor just to be safe though. It was there. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, but... yeah. 

Tony looked up at Bruce and Jane, they still seemed to be on the edge of their feet. 

"Why are you grinning like loons? What's the news?" 

"We got a message from Thor," Jane smiled, almost jumping with glee despite her extra weight and hurting ankles. "Something called Nova put him in contact with some people willing to help. He said it was a team not unlike the Avengers."

"He didn't return to Asgard," Jane continued smiling. "Loki said he would, but he didn't. I'm so proud of him."

"We don't need any help," Tony huffed.

"Yes we do," said Bruce in his tired-father-voice. 

"But we just built an entire particle accelerator engine in space out of scrap metal! It can make light speed!"

"It can _theoretically_ make light speed," Bruce gave him another patient look. "But it is cool, I cant argue with that. We still need help, though. Also, we can't start it up before Thor comes back, it would take him longer to find us."

"Bruce!"

"Also, we can look at their engines and get some pointers."

Tony pouted even though he knew they were right. It would be better to look at something already invented than trying to do it from scratch. Upgrades were what Tony did best. Still, he had his pride. He was far too well aware that compared to other ships out the there Heidrun was a hatch patch. 

But she was his hatch patch. 

"It can make light speed if Loki would help me," he sourly pushed some holographic controls that he had made appear before him. "But he's all 'No, Anthony, I will not experiment on your brain with the Stone, it is too dangerous and I love you'."

He ignored the look Bruce exchanged with Jane and brought up the particle analyst hologram. Everything seemed like it was working fine, he was a genius after all. With any luck they could still make some headway before Thor arrived back. 

They could at least do some propulsion tests. If strangers were to look at the ship it better be moving. 

"I'm sure we can look at the engine of the other ship when it arrives," Bruce patted his back. "We learned a lot from the lifeboat, just think what we'll find out from a real intergalactic ship."

"We are an intergalactic ship," Tony continued to pout.

Bruce and Jane gave him a combined look. Cow just panted happily, at least he wasn't judging. 

"Fine," sighed Tony and closed the holograms. "Fine, but lets go to the engine room and start this baby up. I don't want to be floating if we are going to have guests."

\------ 

Kree walked the corridors as far as he was allowed. He still had the metal bracelet that restricted him from the Bridge, the engine room, and some of the storage rooms, including, of course, the armoury. 

He was accompanied by Hawkeye. He preferred calling the warriors by their warrior names, somehow it made him feel more safe. Why that was, he had no idea, but it did. Perhaps it was to remind himself of what they were. Like he himself calling himself Kree until he found out his real name. The Terrans didn't object. 

He found the smaller Terran quite interesting. Kree had seen Hawkeye practice with a bow and arrow and been highly impressed. Not that he would tell the Terran that. Apparently on Terra his name was associated with extremely good eyesight. 

"Is it anything special you're looking for?" asked Hawkeye with a yawn. "We've been down here three times now."

"No," Kree kept walking. 

He couldn't tell the Terran that he was looking for a feeling. Kree already felt embarrassed that he was totally dependent on the them. He couldn't tell them that there was something filling up the dark void inside his head with... With what?

It wasn't tangible. He wasn't sure if the burned out part of his brain had contained more than memories. Perhaps there were words missing as well, definitions, sounds, meanings when sleeping he had nightmares of the colour purple, just the colour, nothing else. 

But there was something on this ship that was familiar and different at the same time... He hadn't felt it when he first woke up from his presumed death, but he felt it now. He had been feeling for it for four of the ship's time cycles now. Even if it remained nameless and undefined, it was there. 

They turned a corner and almost collided with Captain and Wintersoldier. The two of them quickly let go of each other's hands, they didn't move away from each other though. They were lovers, but not much for public display. 

Kree respected that. He wasn't much for how openly Iron Man doted Loki. It wasn't fit for a commander. He preferred the cool subtlety with with Black Widow regarded Hawkeye. Kree wondered what type he would be in that situation, or had been. 

For all he knew there could be someone. Despite the fact of his dishonourable funeral there was a possibility of someone mourning him. But they, if they even existed, were gone from his memories as well. 

"Sorry," said Captain with a secretive smile. "We are laying out a trap and had to take a detour."

"A trap?" Hawkeye frowned. "For whom?"

"Sam and Jemma," Captain motioned them to follow, Kree only did because he had no choice. "We're trying to lead them to meet in the common room. They've been dancing around each other for weeks. I've seen it,'but only just put it together when I... got better."

Kree really wanted to know more about that. One moment Captain had been trapped in an airlock, shifting rapidly between suicide and despotism, the next moment he had been back to seemingly normal. He was sure Loki had used some kind of magic. 

The fact that almost everyone aboard, except the two pregnant women, now could talk to him was also cause for suspicion. Logically there was something going on that they wanted to keep away from the most vulnerable. 

Loki had also suddenly become much better. It must gave something to do with that strange feeling Kree had, and the purple dreams. He was sure of it. 

"Anyway," continued Captain. "We are setting up a date night for them. A nice dinner and a movie. Phil has been cooking and Darcy and Nat have decorated the common room. I'm going to be their waiter, because Buck's arm still out. _Apparently_..." he sarcastically rolled his eyes and got a mocking tone in his voice. "...the engines are more important than people's appendages."

Wintersoldier huffed and gave his partner a glare. His lower lip had healed, much faster than expected. A pink scar ran over his lip and down his chin. He had big a long sleeve shirt on, Kree noticed the left sleeve was empty. He wondered how the Terran had lost it in the first place, somehow it didn't seem appropriate to ask. 

"I never said that," Wintersoldier shook his head. "Anyway, I think Clint would be a better waiter, he's more discreet."

"Sure," shrugged Hawkeye. "I'm not busy. I can help spread a little romance."

"I'm not discreet?" Captain frowned. 

They had entered the elevator leading to the Bridge. Kree was not allowed in there. He looked down at the metal around his wrist, it did nothing. 

"Mr. Kree," said the polite voice of the computer. "I have to ask you to disembark on this floor."

The doors opened. Kree had only been there once before on a walkthrough from the other end of the corridor, but recognised it as the crew living quarters.

The young scientist Fitz was there. He was holding a remote control and was in the process of guiding three small flying objects simultaneously around the room. One of the objects crashed into the a wall as Kree stepped out of the elevator and Fitz was distracted. He walked over and picked it up. 

As Kree looked around he now noticed that he no longer was guarded by Hawkeye but of Wintersoldier. 

"Gave me an excuse," shrugged the one-armed Terran. "I'm not that into matchmaking."

"Jemma and Sam?" asked Fitz as he looked over his flying device. "It was only a matter of time. She always had a thing for pilots, both of her grandfathers were pilots in the war."

Kree wondered what war that was. Most likely one fought on Terra. It must have been fairly recent judging by the look on Wintersoldier's face it was one he lived through. 

"Is it true we got a message from Thor?" Fitz sighed and let the flyer go, it hoovered steadily over his hand. 

"Yes," Wintersoldier nodded. "He is on his way back with some team."

The name meant nothing to Kree. He was more interested in Thor, the Asgardian, the only member of the crew he hadn't met. Kree knew of Asgard, as he did of Terra and many other worlds, it was just the people inhabiting those worlds he was missing. At least he did know that Asgard meant big, strong, and powerful.

"Kree?" 

A door had opened next to them. It was Loki.

Kree immediately looked him over, pausing at his feet, black boots. He didn't know what he had expected. When he had seen parts of Loki's skin being blue, Kree had felt a kind of kindred towards him. He still felt it. 

His own blue skin set him apart from the Terrans. He had first suspected that Falcon was different as well, but he was just the same as the others. Kree and Loki were the only non-Terrans aboard. 

"Would you mind coming inside?" Loki opened the door wider. "There's some things we need to discuss."

Kree inclined his head, he had been waiting for this. He stepped inside the small room and let it led around while Loki was talking to Wintersoldier, telling him not to worry. 

It was a simple room, almost half of it filled up by a large bed. A long man-sized pillow was splitting the bed in two separate halves. Still, it wasn't uninviting. The pillow seemed more of a connection than a border.

"It's because I don't like being touched."

Kree startled, he hadn't noticed that he had been staring too long at the bed. Loki had closed the door and was now standing a few steps closer. 

"Neither do you," he continued. "But I doubt it's for the same reasons."

"What reasons are those?" Kree asked warily. "I'm not sure myself."

He exposed a weakness by saying this, but he felt that Loki was a good choice of ally. The strange feeling that he had been searching for was definitely connected to Loki. 

"You feel that touch is beneath you," Loki shrugged. "At least the touch of those not worthy."

It sounded true. Kree nodded slowly. 

"For me it's just the way I was born..." He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Please," he gestured to the other side. "Sit down. We need to talk."

Kree only hesitated for a moment before sitting down. It was a very intimate place for a meeting, but it was very private as well and that was probably the point. 

He waited for Loki to gather his thoughts. The mock-Asgardian looked down at his pale hands. 

"I have recently regained access to an object that I thought forever lost to me. It has made me remember things that I rather preferred forgotten..." He took a deep breath and turned to Kree. "But some of the things I remember has to do with you, and even though recalling this is very painful for me, it's only fair that you should know."

Kree nodded. He wondered about what object Loki was talking about, but it could wait. 

"I'm already prepared for it not being pretty," he said. "I know I was a fierce warrior, and that my presumed demise was dishonourable."

"We only met once before. I don't know what happened to you after our meeting... But your name is Ronan."

"Ronan," he repeated. 

It sounded familiar enough to not be mistaken for a lie. Kree nodded again. Loki continued. 

"You came to the deep dungeons belonging to the mad titan Thanos."

Kree didn't recognise the name but a sudden flair of purple was whispering in his mind. 

"Don't ask me for its location because I don't know, I have no recollection of arriving or leaving that place. I was there being... Let's call it 'being _trained_ ', for now. You came in with a... _creature_ known only by the name 'The Other'."

Loki suddenly looked paler, his hands were shaking. Kree _Ronan_ waited for him to continue. 

"I'm not sure, but I think The Other wanted to test your loyalty, and to show you what happens to those who don't give it. He ordered you to use the branding iron on me, you did. He was pleased."

Kree looked at his own hands. 

"I'm Jotun," Loki whispered. "I don't have much tolerance for heat." He paused for another breath. "Don't feel bad, it was just one day of many in that dungeon for me. And what ever happened to my body, the worst torture was still going on in my mind. If you hadn't done it our roles would most likely have been reversed."

They sat silent for a while. 

A name, he had a name. Ronan. 

"I'm... sorry," he breathed, the words sounded strange in his mouth. 

"It's fine," Loki met his eyes. "Later I found out through the connection The Other had forged with me, that you had killed him. That is enough for me to forgive you, and owe you, several times over. 

..........

Tony opened the door to his and Loki's room. 

He was tired and irritated. Steve had made him take a long detour around the common room, the kitchen had been too busy to give him a decent meal, Leo and Bucky were racing miniature drones in the hallway, and according to the latest message from Thor he was bringing an expert mechanic. Tony didn't need another mechanic. 

He stopped and stared at the big blue alien sleeping on his side of the bed. He then glanced at Loki who was sitting against the headboard with a big book on his lap. Then he looked at the alien again. 

"What...?"

"Nothing happened," said Loki closing his book with a small piece of paper to mark his page. 

"I sure hope not," Tony sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. 

Loki got up and walked on his knees over to the end of the bed so that he faced Tony. He had a slightly guilty look on her s face.

"I gave him a Moment of Clarity and he passed out."

"What? You..."

"No potion, just the Clarity. It was an emotional one, at least I think it was. Except for the passing out, the Clarities should work the same on him as on humans."

"Why?" Tony frowned. 

"We were talking..." Loki looked over his shoulder at the sleeping Kree. "He has been having nightmares as well. I could cure most of mine with the Stone, but since he can't know about it I offered him the next best thing I could do."

"No, I mean, why is he in my bed?"

"There's were he fell," Loki gave him a 'how stupid are you'-look. "I'm not carrying him back to his own room."

Tony could have given him some good choice answers, but frankly he was too tired. 

"I'll go sleep in Bruce's old room. You owe me, big time."

"How big?" Loki sat back on his haunches. 

Tony looked him over, relishing in the power of the opportunity. 

"I want to watch you shower, including you washing your hair."

"Pervert," Loki rolled his eyes. 

"You brought another man into your bed," Tony smirked. "I should be appropriately compensated."

He threw Loki a kiss before leaving the room. The next moment he had to duck to avoid being hit with a drone in the face.


	24. Old and new meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this last night but I fell asleep during my grammar read through. Not that this is boring, I was just tired. That said, it's a bit of rushed chapter. Please enjoy. 
> 
> I have also decided that this part will only have a few more chapters. I want to make a longer time jump and the pacing of the story makes it easier to split it into a third part. So don't worry if you think it's starting to wind down, it will most definitely have a sequel.

"I've been thinking..."

"Don't strain yourself, Babe."

Loki gave Anthony a glare over his shoulder. The human quickly held up his hands in defence. 

"I meant in washing yourself, sore muscles and so on. Any of those? Need to massage anything? Go ahead. I got time, and cameras."

They were alone in the shower room, Anthony having scared away Coulson, Steve, and Bucky by being creepy. At the moment Anthony was leaning against the row of sinks with only a towel around his waist and a leering smile on his lips. 

Loki huffed. He had just endured being watched in the shower. It wasn't that he was embarrassed being seen naked, especially not by Anthony. Though he didn't like how it made him feel reduced him to something like an object. 

When he looked at Anthony's bare body he saw something pleasing to the eye, interesting scars, lines and curves, hidden strength in relaxed muscles, and the genius behind the device in his chest... Loki felt uncomfortable trying to imagine what Anthony saw when looking back. Especially judging from how that towel was positioned. 

_Give and receive,_ thought Loki. Concede and demand. Forcing back urges in exchange for stretching comfort levels. It was the way their relationship worked. At least in the physical sense. They had never really discussed the other part of it, they just lived it. 

"I've been thinking myself," continued Anthony turning to the mirror and taking a small scissor to his beard. "Sponge baths. Saves water, looks sexy, everyone wins."

"The Stone," Loki took a strengthening breath, he had to say it. "I can use it to make myself sexually attracted to you."

Anthony froze. 

"It's the Mind-Stone," continued Loki taking a step towards him. "There's nothing it can't convince me to do. We could..."

"Loki," Anthony breathed out a long suffering sigh. "There is nothing I would like more than to have sex with you. Fuck knows I fantasise about it daily, and nightly. But the keywords here are 'make' and 'convince'." He turned to look into Loki's eyes. "I don't want to do it against your will."

"But if I use the Stone I would want it. Don't you see? It can change my will."

"Even worse," Anthony shook his head and returned to his beard. "I don't want a brainwashed sex-slave. I want you as you are."

"Anthony..." 

"And stop tempting me with this kind of shit. I've got my awesome coping mechanisms for sexual frustration down, I don't need more complications."

"I'm sorry," Loki smiled.

He hadn't know he could fall more in love with the human, but he guessed he could. He sighed in resignation. Anthony was holding so much back for him, it was only fair to let some of himself loose for Anthony. 

"You know that idea you had about sponge baths?" 

"Yeah...?" Anthony glanced at him in the mirror. 

"Maybe I could try one sometime."

"In blackmail for what?

His human knew him so well. Loki already had some things in mind. Just because he didn't even understand or feel sexual attraction didn't mean he couldn't use it to get what he wanted. It was just one of the greater knowledges in his life. 

"I'll definitely think of something."

"Can I point out areas that you are missing?"

"Don't push it," Loki hit him sharply on the arm. 

"I love it when you play rough, Babe, but watch it while I'm having sharp objects near my face."

They continued with their morning routines in silence. It had been a long time since Loki had felt this good. He knew it was mostly an illusion caused by the Stone but he would enjoy it for now. The wellness he imagined having would help his real damages to heal faster. 

Real peace wouldn't come until he knew everyone was safe. And that wouldn't happen until they could get rid of the Stone. That thing was a beacon for danger and it festered on Loki's mind. 

"Sir," JARVIS announced from up above them. "A unknown vessel is making contact with us. Agent Hill is waiting for your instructions."

"Is it Thor?" Anthony examined himself in the mirror. 

"Yes, sir."

"Let them dock."

"They'll arrive within the hour, sir."

Loki was relived without really wanting to be it. He didn't want to admit he had missed Thor, but he had. It was one of those cases of 'you don't know what you miss until its gone', except for what you miss is an annoying idiot. Brothers were brothers even if they weren't. 

He guessed it would fall to his lot to explain to Thor about the Kree and the Stone. Except for the Hulk Loki would suffer least damage if hit by Thor. Hulk was sadly not an option, Banner didn't have time to be incapacitated. Thanks for that. Loki took a brush to his hair. 

"Their mechanic better not find any fault with the engines," Anthony adjusted his towel. "We worked our butts off on that."

....

"So how did the date go?"

Steve wasn't listening in on Tony's conversation with Jemma, he only happened to stand close enough to hear what they were saying. Of course he was curious himself, but hadn't gotten around asking Sam about it yet. 

It was his first time back at the airlock since his _episode_ a few days ago. It still felt a bit uncomfortable but it wasn't something he hadn't gotten over. In fact he was kind of grateful for seeing a bad side of himself. 

They had all agreed not to crowd the guests as they arrived. Those who had other work to do were to continue as normal. Steve had arrived just a moment earlier after dropping Bucky off in the med-bay. Tony, Loki and Jemma were already there. 

Bucky was letting Kingsley look over the artificial nerve fibres in his shoulder for the fitting of the repaired arm. Leo had been working really hard the last days to finish it, all that was missing was Bruce's and Tony's seals of approval. 

Steve found it a slight manufacturing flaw that the airlock served so many purposes. The thought of using it as a holding cell while being docked to another ship had never come up. Steve just hoped that nothing would happen to test that possibility. 

Bruce was in the main laboratory working on something. He had told Steve what is was about but it had been impossible to follow. Something with spitting atoms and radiation. They had at least had a good couple of Hulk-free days. 

"It was nice," Jenma smiled. "We had a nice time."

"Isn't that nice?" Tony said in a slightly sarcastic tone and looked over at Loki. "Do you think Clint can play waiter to us too?"

"Not for free," Clint yawned sleepily as he turned the corner into the area, scratching his ear with one hand and holding on to Nat's hand in his other. "Are they here yet?"

"They are about to dock at any moment," Jemma looked over some of the controls. 

"How do I look?" Tony patted down his blue shirt, that wasn't quite hiding the light in his chest. "What's the fashion in space now a days? I have no references except for space-vikings, Chitauri, and a naked blue guy."

Steve continued to ignore him, still, he wondered if he should have worn his uniform. Clint had black jeans and a purple t-shirt. Nat was wearing something similar but all black and more stretchy over her belly. 

"You look very handsome," Loki adjusted his own green and gold jacket. "And don't call me a space-viking or l'll make you think you are one."

Tony looked pensive. 

"Maybe we should have a dragon head at the front of the ship..."

Steve missed Bucky. He usually acted as a barrier, or at least an ally, against the idiocy of some of Tony's comments about. 

"Are they here yet?"

Steve turned at the sound of Jane's excited voice. She walked slowly, supported by Hill's arm. At almost seven months her small frame had swelled up considerably. She and Nat were the same height but they had started off at different fitness levels, also two babies with Thor was hard to compare to one with Clint. 

Kingsley had said a lot of it was retained water, but Steve had seen the glances and heard the whispers. His mother had been a nurse, and as a sickly child he had spent a lot of time with her at the hospital. Jane wasn't doing too well, the pain in her legs and back were two of her least problems. 

There was nothing wrong with her mood and spirit though, and her brain was as sharp of ever. She was really radiating now at the prospect of Thor returning. 

Steve glanced at Loki who was glancing back at him. He couldn't really read his expression but Steve hoped it was concern. 

"Who's on the Bridge?" asked Tony. 

"Sam and Coulson," said Hill looking over to the airlock that was springing to life from the outside. 

They stood silent for a moment while watching the mechanisms work. There was a hissing noise as the airlock decompressed. The next moment it opened and Thor stood there as a returning hero with his fists on his hips. 

It was all very dramatic, and Steve decided that he later should draw a caricature of it. 

Thor passed him with just a smile and a pat to the shoulder before walking over to Jane. It seemed like he was on his way to lift her up in his arms but hesitated at the last moment to bend down and kiss her instead. 

"You have grown," he said placing his large hand on her belly. 

Jane laughed and hit him on the arm. They kissed again. Steve turned away. 

There were three people standing in the airlock and looking around. A white man similar to himself, a green woman, and a... raccoon wearing clothes. Steve blinked down at the strange creature. It hissed at him showing sharp teeth. 

"Welcome aboard," said Tony holding out his hand to the green woman. 

She looked at his outstretched hand, made a quick glance to her male companion, and the took the hand in a slightly awkward way. Obviously not a standard greeting. 

"My name is Tony Stark and this is my ship the Heidrun. I'm pleased you could find the time to come to our... assistance."

He was obviously flirting with her. She wasn't impressed. Steve liked her. 

"I am Gamora," She had long red hair and high cheekbones, her skin didn't quite have the same nuance as Hulk but it was close. "You have an impressive ship."

"Built it with my own hands," Tony was still trying to impress her. 

"Hrm," said Jemma. 

"With some help, and some robots, that I also built... Hey! Pip-squeak! Don't touch that!"

"Suck it, pretty boy," said the raccoon and continued poking around the airlock control board. 

Tony blinked and then looked at Loki. 

"I knew this was a good shirt, he thinks I'm pretty,"

"Yes, my love," Loki stepped up to his side. 

"You!" Gamora's eyes widened. 

"Me," said Loki calmly but with a hidden threat in his voice. "Surprised?"

She obviously was, and not in a good way judging from her new aggressive stance. 

"Do you know each other?" asked Steve, having a feeling that hell was going to break loose. 

"We have a few in common acquaintances," Loki nodded. "It was before I came to Midgard."

"Really?" Thor asked "I didn't know that."

"You wouldn't. It was after I left Asgard."

"Oh..."

They all knew far too well what had happened in that space of time. Somehow this woman was associated with the being that made Loki attack Earth. Though Thor seemed to trust her now. Steve hesitated over what to do. 

"Can't we go freakin' anywhere without meeting someone you messed up?" huffed the raccoon. 

Loki was glaring at Gamora. It was worrying, her look back wasn't comforting either. They looked like they were going to kill each other. Tony wasn't helping, he was staring at the raccoon like it was his birthday. The raccoon was looking back at Tony as if was going to scratch his face off. 

Steve turned to the third member of the party to see if anything could be resolved that way. He was met with an all to familiar look that he had thought he had left behind on Earth.

"You are him... Aren't you? Captain America. But how?"

"We're in the middle of space!" grunted Clint behind him. "On the other side of Pluto! How can you still have fans?"

Steve wondered the same thing. 

"Hi?" He smiled, carefully holding out his hand. "Steve Rogers. I was frozen for seventy years, they found me and brought me back."

Simple and short. Steve didn't really like telling the story, and especially not like that, he had thought he wouldn't need to do it anymore. 

"Oh. Oh my-... Fu-... I mean, you are real! Like awesome. I saw you and recognised... My grandfather collected everything about you. I had a comic book about you in my bag when I was taken. I can't believe it. Oh! I'm Peter... Quill, I mean... Star-Lord. Hi, I'm Peter."

The man was in his mid-thirties and had a nice smile. He was nervous but had a good handshake. Steve suddenly felt very old. 

"You were taken?"

"Peter Quill is from Midgard as well," announced Thor. "He left there as a child,"

"Abducted by aliens," Peter grinned. "They were Ravagers. I was nine."

Steve didn't know what to say to that, but Clint thankfully came to his rescue. 

"Cool, I've been abducted by aliens too," He stepped forward, still holding on to Nat. "That grumpy one over there as a matter of fact. He didn't hold on to me for that long though. I'm Clint, this is Natasha. Neither she nor Jane understands anything you're saying so take it easy with them."

"He's actually speaking mostly English," said Nat. "It's not those two I don't understand.

Jane agreed. 

"Oh," Clint grinned. "I'm not that good at separating what I hear, everything sounds the same."

"The translators can do that," nodded Peter. "Especially when you are new to them."

That finally caught Tony's interest. He hadn't really noticed, or was ignoring, Loki's death stare at the woman. Steve still had no idea how Tony's brain worked, and somehow he actually felt quite grateful for that. 

"We don't have translators, we all have have the Allspeak except for the girls here. But I would love to see one, maybe we can get one for Nat and Jane?"

"You all have the Allspeak?" frowned Thor. "How can this be? Loki? You hadn't any of the strength for that when I left. And how come Jane knows if she haven't..."

"Thor!" Loki growled. "We don't need talk about that now. We have guests."

"My apologies," Thor looked around, his arm tightened slightly around Jane who had put a calming hand on his chest. "I have missed this place. It has troubled me that I haven't been here. You seem better, brother."

"It's mostly in the mind and my body followed," Loki sighed and turned back at the green woman. "My lady, you seem to have started a new life and so have I. I have no desire to fight you, it would only end up damaging this ship that is very precious to me. If you are willing to forgive the past so am I."

She blinked in surprise, but then nodded. 

"I have left my father's service. He has no hold over me any more. You and me are, as Peter say, 'cool'. I use this expression since we are on a Terran ship."

"I understand," Loki smiled politely. 

"Enough chit-chat," the raccoon jumped up on the console to gain some hight, both Tony and Jemma twitched over this. "The big boy with the big hammer said you have a garden room."

"We do..." Tony said slowly. "But it's too early to harvest anything eatable. We have... eh... What do raccoons eat?"

"What's a raccoon?" asked the raccoon. "Quill keeps calling me that too and I don't like it. My name is Rocket, there's only fucking one of me." He suddenly had something resembling a small gun in his hairy hand. "Now hand over some dirt, fertiliser, and water and no one will be hurt... Eh?"

Steve had no idea what just happened, but Natasha was holding the raccoon, Rocket, up by the neck. In her other hand she was holding the small gun. 

"I don't know what you said," she glared. "But we don't draw our weapons onboard." She threw the gun without looking away to Tony, he caught it with one hand. "Safety first."

"He wasn't going to do anything with it," Peter hurried over. "It's like his security blanket. He points it at everything, you'll get used to it. He doesn't like firing the small ones anyway. Rocket, stop embarrassing me in front of Captain America!"

"Hey!" hissed Rocket. "Get this fat chick of me! And give me back my gun!"

"He called me something rude didn't he?"

"Better for him for you to not know, sweetheart," Clint smiled. "Now put him down before you get accused of animal cruelty,"

"Who are you calling 'animal', you friggin' chump?"

Nat let Rocket go into Peter's arms. He struggled for a moment to get a hold on him.

"Rocket! Calm down or we'll won't get the fertiliser."

Rocket grudgingly relaxed. 

"Are you building a bomb?" Tony looked up from his examination of the weapon. "Because I don't know if we can support that."

"What?" Peter frowned. 

"They need it for an injured teammate," interjected Thor. "I gave them my word to help them with this."

"Fine," said Tony, turning his attention back to the small gun. "This thing is awesome by the way. It works on a electromagnetic spring."

Steve looked over, Tony had now picked the weapon apart. What else could you expect from a former weapons manufacturer? Jemma leaned closer. Hill walked over to have a look as well, she seemed just as interested. 

Steve cleared his throat, it seemed that it was up to him to bring this to order. 

"Hello," said Hill to Gamora, holding out her hand. "I'm Maria, the first pilot."

Clint made a small choking sound, Nat took a similar breath but then slapped his arm. Steve and Tony exchanged wide eye glances. Jane and Jemma blinked several times. Thor seemed confused. Loki smirked. 

Had Hill just introduced herself with her first name?

\-----

Loki had just finished explaining to Thor about the Staff and the Stone when the alarm went off. 

Thor had taken it quite well, he hadn't broken anything or screamed too loudly. The alarm was actually a good distraction even though it meant something bad was happening in another part of the ship. 

They had been standing in the conservatory. Close enough to overlook Rocket replant a child-sized wooden man in an unused patch of dirt, far enough away to have a private conversation. 

The small hairy creature was pretending not to be, but had been very impressed with the garden. Kingsley and Coulson did a good job keeping after it. Loki had heard Romanoff was helping too but he hadn't seen it yet. 

Another thing that had impressed were composed dirt and the concentrated fertiliser pellets that Banner and Simmons had managed to manufacture. The small tree-man was eating them like candies while Rocket provided it with water. 

Coulson was standing by in the pretence of making inventory, but was really to fascinated by the tree-man to do anything productive. Loki imagined the same look on Anthony's face when seeing the other ships engines. 

"Why haven't you given the elixir to Jane?" sighed Thor, slightly resigned. "I understand with Natasha's child, but my children won't be harmed by it. Jane is in pain and...."

The alarm had startled all of them. There was an Earth expression called 'saved by the bell', Loki had never really experienced it so literally before. 

"Loki," said JARVIS in a tone that wasn't as calm as it was made out to be. "I believe there has been a meeting between Mr Quill and our Kree passenger. They seem to have met before."

"Oh?" Loki rubbed his forehead. 

"We have a Kree passenger?!" screamed Thor. 

"Fucking what?" screamed Rocket. 

Loki considered getting the staff just to shut them all up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mention Drax here, he will make an appearance but he would have gotten in the way in these scenes. It's hard to keep track of too many people. He is also my least favourite character, but that's irrelevant.


	25. Harsh truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting back regular writing hours, but still doing correction on the wrong side of midnight. 
> 
> The dialogue in cursive is meant to coming from speakers.

Though he didn't show it, Tony was a bit bummed out because it wasn't polite not to just go look at the Guardians' ship. Apparently there was a fifth member of the Guardians still aboard. A guy named Drax. He had been left behind as a guard, and also backup in the event Tony and his crew hadn't been as cordial as Thor made them out to be. 

"Also," Peter smiled fondly. "He doesn't really make a good first impression to strangers."

The ship was called the Milano. Named after his favourite actress as a a child. 

"I really liked 'Who's the boss'," Peter confessed. "That's one thing I miss from Earth, sitcoms. I watched as many as I could. There's nothing like it out here. I was only nine when I left, but I still remember how much I liked them."

Tony was ten years older than Peter and had spent his the eighties either parting or inventing artificial intelligence. Sitcoms hadn't been a priority, his favourite genre had already been science fiction. He felt old, but then remembered Loki's age and felt stupid. 

"What do you have out here?" asked Tony, trying to keep up the conversation. 

It had fallen to him to show Peter around the ship. He wasn't going to tell him about their TV- and movie-library. If he did they would surely have a new permanent fixture in the common room. It could possibly also be used as material for blackmail. _Let me pick apart your ship and I'll give you the complete collection of 'Bewitched'!_

"There are movies," Peter shrugged. "The galaxy is diverse, but the most popular ones are usually re-enactments of historical events. Works of fiction are mostly recorded theatre performances or dramatical readings. It differs from planet to planet, but Earth is kind of unique in that area."

Tony could probably make a fortune just starting up a chain of cinemas showing stuff from Earth. Though on the other hand, what if some crazy alien decided to attack Earth after watching a sci-fi movie? Those things could be pretty racist to aliens...

Better just start up a TV-studio and re-enact shows like 'Full House' and 'Cheers'. 

"What year is it on Earth now?" asked Peter. 

"Two thousand and fifteen."

"Two thousand and sixteen, sir." supplied JARVIS. 

"What the fuck?!" Tony stopped in his tracks. "I know I've been distracted with the construction and the engines but did we miss Christmas?"

"We did sir. After the teleportation jump most of my programs needed rebooting."

"And we lost Christmas?"

"Yes, but we now have day-cycles of twenty-five hours and thirteen minutes. I set after the combined average of the bodily rhythms of everyone aboard, except from the dog who sleeps far more than the average."

The computer had gone mad.

"How many screws did you loose in the jump?" Tony rubbed his face in exhaustion. 

"Physically three, mentally, not recorded. Sir."

Tony sighed. Why hadn't any of the others told him they'd missed Christmas? Someone had to had been taking count on a calendar. But then again, who needed calendars in outer space. What did it matter to him up here that it was a Monday or a Thursday on Earth? But holidays had to be important still? Hadn't they?

"But we celebrated Bruce's birthday..." Tony said in a mix of plea and confusion. 

"I had the same problem in the beginning," said Peter patting his back. "I still have sometimes. I wonder about Christmas or Spring, or my birthday. But I got over it, eventually..." He sighed. "You know th-..."

He stopped talking and stared forward. Tony looked as well. On the opposite side of the corridor stood Bruce and Kree. They were calmly talking to each other about something on a tablet Bruce was holding. 

Tony was just about to waive and call out to them when Peter rushed passed him and jumped on Kree. Kree fell backwards by the sheer force of the attack, landing on his back on the floor by Bruce's feet. Peter ended up siting almost on top of his groin. It would have looked sexy if Peter wasn't trying to strangle the big blue man. 

But then again just because Tony wasn't into that stuff didn't mean it didn't look sexy to some. Tony really should work more on his awesome sexual frustration techniques. He tilted his head slightly. It was only because Loki had thrown him on a loop this morning by suggesting using the Staff on himself. 

Also, _morning_? What was 'morning'? According to JARVIS time was screwed up and nobody onboard neither cared or looked at watches. Any-who, ambiguous sexy pose in progress, or potential killing attempt. Keep up, Tony!

Kree seemed quite surprised at the sudden turn of events but his reflexes weren't. The next moment Peter was buckled off like a cowboy of a wild bull and flying through the air. He screamed. 

The next scream, or rather roar, unfortunately came from the Hulk, on whom Peter had landed. 

Tony wasn't going to see those alien engines in the near future, was he?

\----- 

Clint arrived too late to see the carnage. But then again he had made his choice to spy on Hill trying to flirt with a green lady rather than follow Tony. 

He stood by his choice since he now finally began to unravel some of the hardness that was his former SHEILD superior, but he would also have like to see Kree's and Peter's reaction to the Hulk. 

JARVIS' re-plays didn't always capture the feeling of the moment. The guy was a sentient computer, not a professional moviemaker. That said, it was pretty awesome. 

"I like the part when they both hide behind Tony," he said to Nat. 

"Poor Bruce," Nat shook her head. "I hope he isn't stuck like that again. Though I agree, that is the best part."

"Would you two focus?" Steve took a breath. "We've been harbouring a war criminal, again! Why is this a thing with us? Why? Why?"

He was obviously going through a crisis. Thankfully, both Bucky and Nat were there so Clint wasn't obligated to be the first comforter. 

They were in the common room. A live feed from the main Med-bay camera was on the big screen. Kingsley was taking care of Peter's bruises while Tony, Gamora, and Hill looked on. Peter hadn't been badly hurt, at least not by Clint's standards. Then again, Clint's standards for injuries were pretty high. 

Kree and Loki were there as well. Those who had eyes trained to observe micro-expressions could see that Kree was looking unusually nervous. Clint doubted anyone but he and Nat could see it. 

The smaller screens were either showing other angles of the Med-bay or recordings from the incident. Clint was mostly focused on the latter. 

"Poof!!" he made a collision sound effect and laughed as Peter yet again was thrown into Bruce and Bruce swelling up like a green angry airbag. "And now they run and hide. Tony's face! It never gets old."

Tony first looked like he was done with everything, then there was surprise, and then he was even more done but now smirking. Hulk just roared, blinked in realisation that he was out, sat down, grumbled, and started pouting. Yeah, Clint sighed, poor Bruce. 

Since the airlock was busy Hulk had been placed in the gym, which was the most spacious room aboard. Darcy was with him, trying to calm him down together with the help of Cow. Thor was there as well, but mostly to be a living punching bag if something snapped. 

Jane had wanted to come too but was kindly but firmly turned away for her own safety. Clint glanced over to her. She was currently sitting in one of the few really comfy chairs aboard. Her eyes were fixed on a live feed from the gym. She looked like a small angry chubby girl hugging a beach ball. 

Clint was definitely keeping that analogy to himself. Nat was no longer receptive for jokes like that, not that she had liked them before...

"Technically..." said Rocket jumping up on the back of the sofa by bouncing on the seating cushions "...he isn't a war criminal anymore. He was voted officially dead by the Galactic Association, and once you're dead to them you're dead for real, even if you are alive. Asshole's wiped clean."

Not a pretty imagery, but probably quite accurate. Clint translated for Nat, she wrinkled her nose slightly. 

"Shouldn't you be with your friends?" asked Steve. 

"Nah," Rocket sat down, placing his feet behind the back pillows, his tail hanging down the backside of the sofa. "You have a good setup here, and I would probably just say some shit to make the situation worse. I do that sometimes. Groot usually holds me back but he's still growing."

It was still a bit strange talking to a talking raccoon, especially one with such a foul mouth. Even more strange was that Groot-thing in the conservatory. Apparently that living child-formed stub was to grow to a tree-man twice Clint's hight. Space, man, space....

"So Ronan's lost his memory?" Rocket watched the screen with Peter and Gamora being shown the Kree brain scans. "There's nothing left?"

The same images were shown on a smaller screens for Rocket to see as well. There was no way of mistaking the black void where something ought to be. Even for someone like Clint, whose medical skills were limited to doing patch work first aid during battle, it looked serious. 

"We think he has most of his personally traits intact," said Steve. "He has good muscle memory, as you could see..."

He quieted down when JARVIS raised the volume of the big screen. Everyone turned to listen. It was Gamora talking.  
_  
"...The Kree empire is expands several systems. There's the Kree Council, but the fractions are mostly self-governed. Ronan was the leader by birth of one of these fractions, and also held the title of Accuser within the Council..."_

_"It's something like a judge, jury, and executioner in one,"_ supplied Loki to Tony's questioning frown. _"Like that idiotic movie you showed me, but with more being a general, and less petty crime fighting."_

_"The comics and the reboot are better,"_ said Tony. _"But I get your point."_

_"Ronan didn't agree to the peace treaty with Xandar,"_ continued Gamora. _"And instead sought revenge. The Kree Council did nothing to stop him, so we guess he was unofficially sanctioned by them on the odd chance he succeeded."_

_"He didn't though,"_ said Peter. _"We kicked his butt."_

"Damn right we did," agreed Rocket. 

_"But then you sent his body away in an unmarked lifeboat,"_ Tony frowned again. _"Into a star. Didn't you even check if he was still alive?"_

_"We had nothing to do with him after we defeated him,"_ Peter shook his head. _"The Nova Corp took care of everything. But if part of his brain is gone it's kind of understandable if they thought he was dead."_

Kree was staring at Peter very intently, it wasn't even subtle anymore. Clint hoped Loki noticed too because he was the only person close enough to hold the blue man back if he was to attack. 

_"He was a leader of the enemy,"_ Gamora looked over to the Kree, obviously aware of the change. _"Thousands are dead because of him. They did what they thought was right."_

_"And the Stone?"_ asked Loki. 

Clint felt a tingle through his spine. He knew that the Stone Loki was talking about wasn't 'the Stone', but the mere mention of its 'brother' made him uncomfortable. 

He noticed Jane stir in her seat as well. She was the only one other than him that had been completely possessed by a Stone. Clint wondered what was worse, having your body or your mind taken over? 

_"The Nova Corp has it."_ said Gamora. _"They are not the ideal keepers, but they will not abuse it. I do not know where the others are, but I know Thanos is very interested in them."_

Loki shifted slightly on screen. 

_"What do you plan to do?"_ asked Tony. _Because if you are going to fight than please do it off my ship."_

_"I don't want to fight,"_ said Ronan holding his head up defiantly. _"Not if I don't have a purpose, like defending myself."_

_"Ronan the Accuser is declared officially dead by the Galactic Association,"_ Gamora breathed. _"This Kree can never be him again. He is now innocent of everything he did while alive. We can only fight him if he decides to start over."_

There was a moment of silence before Peter laughed bitterly.

_"I'm not going to be the one to explain all this to Drax."_

"Hold everything!" Rocket suddenly exclaimed jumping to his feet. "Hold the fuck up!"

The next moment the critter had grabbed hold of Bucky standing next to him and ripped off the bandage over the missing shoulder. Fibre optic wires, silver metal joints, and healed scared flesh was exposed. It looked creepy. 

Bucky watched him with caution but didn't move. 

"Hey!" called Steve. 

"What is this shit?" asked Rocket, tapping the joint with one of his claws. "This is awesome! Can I pick it apart?"

"No, you can not!" Steve pulled Bucky away. 

Clint and Bucky exchanged an amused look. Ever since Steve had gotten back to normal from his 'poisoning', he had become just a little more protective. This was even more evident when he got emotional. It was a side effect of the potion, just like Clint's increased sense of taste. Clint doubted Steve was aware of it himself. 

"There's an arm too right? Can I see it?"

"No!" Steve pushed Bucky behind him. 

"You are a really possessive boyfriend, you're aware of that right?"

"How did you...?"

"It's all over your faces, blondie," huffed Rocket taking a jump and landing on Steve's shoulder, hanging on to his shirt with his claws. "Now lemme look!"

"What are...!" spurted Steve with a tail in his face. 

Clint had trouble not laughing while translating the situation to Nat and Jane. The women weren't alarmed by the outbursts, only curious. 

He debated whether he should help or not. He was distracted by Jane who suddenly whimpered in pain. He watched her rub the spot on her belly were she'd been kicked from the inside. 

"Are you okay?" he asked. 

"I really need to go to the bathroom," she sighed. "But I can't get up."

"We'll help you," Steve saw his chance as he pushed Rocket down on the sofa. 

He dragged Bucky with him over to Jane. She looked surprised but amused as Steve offered her his free hand to help her up. 

"I need to go to," grunted Nat. 

She was able to get to her feet by herself. Clint suppressed the urge to reach out to her. She would ask for help if she needed it. And if she didn't ask, Clint would know. He still asked because he was a glutton for punishment. 

"Do you want me to come with?"

"I'm fine," Nat gave him a small smile. "I've already have a escort. Why don't you entertain our guest?"

She poignantly took hold of Bucky's elbow, even though she didn't need it. 

Clint watched as they left. Steve was half-carrying Jane who was still being abused from the inside. Poor woman. He felt a bit bad for being grateful that Nat didn't have it bad like that. 

He looked down at Rocket, they were alone. Steve and Bucky were helping two pregnant women to the toilet, still Clint felt like he had pulled the shortest straw. And Nat had known it. Rocket gave him something that supposedly could be a friendly smile but was mostly sharp teeth. 

_"How do you feel about this?"_ asked Loki's voice from the screen. 

_"I don't know..."_ answered Kree's voice. _"...yet."_

'Ronan', thought Clint and turned back to the screen. They would probably start calling him 'Ronan' now. It had been a bit disturbing to hear about his past, it didn't really fit with the Kree they knew. But trained reflexes didn't lie, as Clint well knew. With or without memory the guy was definitely trained for fighting. 

They should probably not have a 'Bourne Identity'-movie night. 

"Troublesome," said Rocket who was now on the edge of the armrest. 

"Jane's fine," said Clint sitting down on Nat's vacated space. "Just the babies kicking. They're pretty strong already. What else can you expect from Thor's kids?"

He smiled at something Nat had said a few days ago, that Pumpkin took after Clint's aim when kicking her bladder. 

"Not that," Rocket huffed and pointed to the screen. "That!"

"You mean Hill?" 

Clint watched the screens, searching for the right one. 

Kingsley was neatly wrapping a bandage around Peter's wrist. The surgeon had to stop himself from not covering the entire hand out of habit. Tony had gotten a hold of one of those things that you use to look inside ears, and was currently peeping into Peter's right one. Clint guessed it had to do with the universal translator. 

Hill was showing Gamora how to use the holographic system to look through Ronan's medical files. For a such trained master spy she had trouble hiding her glances towards the other woman. But then again, Clint was a master at observation, he could notice things that others didn't. Still...

"Nah, she's fine. Gamora needs to get her leg over. Someone needs to replace the stick up her butt, your girl seem to want the job."

Clint coughed, and then coughed again. He was glad Nat had left, also that she wouldn't understand what Rocket had said. Loki's interior design of the common room would not match with a raccoon skin carpet. 

"I meant that," Rocket pointed. 

Now Clint saw it as wall. One of the small screens showed Ronan and Loki sitting next to each other on one of the beds. Again there were only micro-expressions, but it was plain as day. Loki was looking dreamily at Tony like a silly boy in love. The 'troublesome' part was that Ronan was having the exact same expression. 

"Yeah..." Clint bit his lower lip. "That could be a problem."

\------------

"Brucy-Brucy pa-pa-poosy," sang Tony as he entered the gym. "Bruuucy!"

Hulk gave him a death glare. 

"Don't aggravate him," Darcy huffed from her doll-like position against the green chest. "We just got his heartbeat to calm down."

"Sorry," Tony patted Cow's head as the dog had jogged over to greet him. "I'm just in a good mood."

"Hulk glad Tony is," gruffed Hulk. 

"Sarcasm is not working for you in that form, big boy."

Tony walked over to them. The two of them had been watching Thor, who had almost effortlessly been testing out the highest setting on one of the resistance machines. That 'almost' meant that Tony would soon need to increase the machine's electromagnets.

"How is everyone?" Thor asked, walking over to join them. "Is Peter well?"

"Sprained wrist and some bruises, nothing too bad." He carefully put his hand on Hulk's wrist to feel the pulse, it seemed all right. "The bigger damage was probably psychological judging from all the mind-blown looks he keeps giving Ronan."

"I am still angry at you for not telling me about the Kree before my departure," Thor gave Tony a narrowed look. "As it turned out he was a very dangerous man."

Tony agreed with that. He had suspected that the Kree was a condemned criminal, at least. But who'd knew the blue guy would turn out to be a former political Judge Dredd warlord with illusions of grandiosity? Space, go figure. 

Ronan had requested time alone in his room to think things over, under JARVIS watchful supervision of course. Loki would look in on him at time to time as well. 

"Yeah," he shrugged. "I'm sorry we held out on you. But we needed you to fetch assistance, and you wouldn't have left if you knew he was here. And he was too interesting from a scientific point of view for having you take him with you."

"I understand this," Thor sighed. "I am still angry."

"You have every right to be."

"We will talk about the Stone later, Tony Stark."

Oh boy, both names. Darcy smirked. Tony really was in trouble now. 

He cleared his throat and turned to look into Hulk's big green eyes. 

"Hey, big boy? You know I wouldn't hurt or expose you, right?" 

Hulk looked at him. 

"I know, I know, but I mean intentionally, right? Loki is looking into getting you back with the Stone, so don't worry about that."

Hulk huffed and shrugged. Darcy patted his chest.

"So, are you up for some visitors? It's all up to you, of course. But I thought they would be less afraid or worried if they got to see you like this. We want them as our friends."

Tony watched a mix of emotions run over the green face. He knew that Bruce was in there struggling to understand complex feelings with simple comprehension. 

"Fine," Hulk nodded. "Hulk don't want them scared."

"Thanks," Tony patted the big arm. "JARVIS, tell them it's okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my original endgames from the beginning was for Hill to meet Gamora, mission accomplished.


	26. Down time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late again... The holidays really messed me up. My buffer is empty and my mind is already on the next part. Still, I don't want to rush the ending for this.

"There must be a better way."

"Don't you think I know that?" Loki sighed irritatingly back at Thor. "I know there's a better way, but I just can't find it. The Stone is too dangerous, but at least it's in capable hands. Yes, Barton, I find myself quite 'capable'."

"I didn't say anything," Barton held up his hands, he was holding a wooden ladle in the right one. 

They were in the kitchen. It had been two days ( _those are not days!_ screamed Anthony's voice in his head _It's all lies! Lies, I tell you!_ ) since the Guardians came aboard. Anthony had spent most of that time studying the Milano accompanied by FitzSimmons and Banner. 

Banner had been helped down from the Hulk by the Stone, but it had taken some experimentation that no one had been comfortable with. Barton had had to excuse himself to the bathroom. Loki had felt sick too. He had even accepted a tight hug from Anthony afterwards. 

The Guardians knew nothing about the Stone and that was they way it should stay to avoid any trouble. If they did, Loki wasn't above using it against them to make them forget. 

It was Barton's and Thor's turn on the cooking roster. Thor, who should never be trusted with food unless he had hunted it down himself and speared it over a campfire, was assigned to opening cans and doing the dishes. 

The other people in the room were Coulson, Darcy, and Romanoff. Coulson was doing his regular inventory of the pantry. Darcy, who was on the laundry roster, was re-stocking towels, cloths, and aprons. Romanoff was eating pickles dipped in honey, her latest craving. 

Loki had no assigned duty at the moment. He was just there because Anthony was busy. And perhaps maybe because he had missed Thor, but that was a secret and also not true at all. He clutched the teacup in his hands. 

"Will Ronan be joining us?" asked Barton. "Or shall I put a plate aside for him again?"

Ronan still hadn't left his room. Loki had visited but the Kree wouldn't say what was bothering him. It was more than just finding out about his past, though that kind of past would make anyone bothered. 

Loki was also wondering over that look he had seen display in the Med-bay. It bothered him greatly that he hadn't been able to see if Ronan had been looking at Anthony or Quill. Loki already didn't have good confidence, a potential rival for Anthony's affections was a bit disconcerting. 

"Set it aside," Loki sighed. "I'll try to talk to him again later."

"What are we going to do with him?" asked Thor. "Is he to be let go, or will he be offered a place on the crew?"

"That's up to Anthony to decide, it's his ship."

"If he wants to stay, we'll put it to a vote," Romanoff dipped another pickle in the honey and looked at it critically. "Do we have any of that mustard left?"

Coulson gave her a small brown ceramic jar, Loki looked away from the mayhem. 

"By the way," said Barton. "What are we paying them? The Guardians, I mean, for letting our fearless leader go through their stuff?"

"Other than being in our good favour, especially Thor's, your cooking, and the medical treatment of their Groot, nothing."

"That's actually a good price. Ronan gets our favour, food, and medicine as well, but he hasn't given much in exchange."

"He just found out he's dead," huffed Darcy. "Give they guy some slack."

"Well," huffed Barton back as he stirred the big pot of red sauce. "If he's staying he'd better start contributing. The engines isn't the only things making this ship move, you know."

"Too bad it's the Mind Stone..." Darcy was folding some small white towels to a neat pile on the table.

"What do you mean?" asked Loki. 

"Well," she continued casually but with a little guilty edge to her voice. "I was talking to Gamora... I thought I'd might write something about it in the newsletter... But, there are six Stones, right? Ours controls the mind, but if we had one of those that controlled time or space we wouldn't need to work so much on the engines."

"The Stones are far too powerful and dangerous to be used for so trivial tasks," Loki drank some of his tea to steady himself at the thought of possible outcomes. "But I understand what you mean,"

"It would be cool to have all of them. It's like the ultimate collection."

"Collection of death," muttered Coulson. 

The thought to collect all the Stones was appealing, but the temptation would be too great. Their intentions might be purer than Thanos', but power corrupts so easily. Also, those now in possession of the other Stones weren't going to part with them easily. And that was a good thing. 

For starters, the Tesseract was in the Asgard vault. They would only get access to that when Odin was dead and Thor was on the throne... Loki blinked. Why hadn't he thought of that before?

As soon as Thor was on the throne he could lift the ban on the elixir, and Anthony could have it regularly. He could perhaps even live as long as Loki. It was a weak plan, since it was impossible to say how much life Odin had left and Loki might have to find a way to steal more in the meantime, but it was a glimpse of hope. 

Better not tell Thor though, in case it could be interpreted as an intention to kill Odin. Not that that was a bad idea either. 

"You are having an idea, brother," Thor said suspiciously. "Anything you want to tell us?"

"No."

Thor gave him a glare, Loki ignored it. Thor sighed. 

"You were going to tell me why you wouldn't give the potion to Jane," he said. "She's in great pain. Kingsley told she was in danger of something that is named Preeclampsia, or 'the pregnancy poisoning'. Surely the potion would help her."

Stupid idiot to bring up that subject when there were other people around. But he understood why, Thor loved Jane and was worried about her and the children. Loki glanced to Romanoff. She didn't seem to listen, which meant that she intently was. The others were less discreet and was openly looking at him. 

"I don't want to discuss this here."

"I have a right to know, Loki. And so do her friends." 

Loki glanced around the room at the others. The four humans present actually were those who he knew Jane considered to be her closest friends onboard. That was quite a coincidence. 

Mjölner, that Thor had placed by the wall, gave a small stir. It wouldn't be pretty if the hammer decided to join the discussion. 

"I didn't want to upset anyone before time," Loki gave in. "I have been reading several books on humans, to prepare myself to be Romanoff's midwife. I have come to the conclusion that Jane could be in great danger when giving birth..." 

He took a deep breath to prepare for the impact. 

"She has told me herself that she knows we might need to cut her up to get the babes out. But I don't think she understands the extent of the operation she must go through. The potion would do more good for her recovery after the birth than to ease her troubles now."

The kitchen was silent, only the sizzling of heated food was heard. No one could really be hungry anymore. 

"You can tell her that," said Romanoff. "She will definitely understand."

"I don't want to scare her," breathed Loki. "Even with the potion she would still be in danger. It's a very small dosage. This is not like Darcy's illness or what we did to help Rogers. In those cases it was their own bodies that were turning against them. With Jane it will be different, her body could even fight it. And..."

Loki really didn't want to tell them this, but now he had to. 

"Since she has been possessed by a Stone before, the Reality Stone no less, I don't want to risk using the Mind Stone. I have to do a Moment of Clarity. And that means she can't know about it."

\------

 

Steve walked into the conservatory. Bucky was already there looking over the tree-man, or man-tree. The thing had already grown to be as tall as them, though it was still quite slender. 

It's feet-roots, or root-feet, were buried in the soil, it's long arms hanging relaxed to it's sides. The face reminded of something that long ago had carved into a living tree but that nature had done its best to heal. 

At the moment it looked like it was sleeping. 

"Awesome, right?" Bucky took Steve's hand. "I never thought I would see anything like it."

It still amazed Steve how quickly and almost seamlessly they had moved from friends to lovers. It was almost as there hadn't been a movement at all. If only it hadn't taken seventy years full of wars, super serums, and pain. He squeezed Bucky's hand and weaved their fingers together. 

"Yeah," he smiled. 

He knew that Bucky was thinking about the Ents from the Lord of the Rings. Steve remembered reading the Hobbit back when he had been an asthmatic fifteen year old. The book had actually been a birthday gift from Bucky, because the kind boy had loved it so much that he wanted to share it with his less fortunate friend. 

There were no Ents in that one, but still. It was the prelude to them. Steve had been frozen in the ice about ten years before the other books were published, but they had been some of the first novels he had been introduced to after waking up. He had enjoyed them very much. 

It was nothing compared to Bucky though. 

He had never told anyone about it, only Steve, and only after they had become lovers. It was such a deep and personal secret, it was an honour to know it. Steve had been amazed how good Bucky was at playing ignorant when Tony made them watch the movies. Bucky had made them all believe that he didn't care. 

The Wintersoldier had read the three books continually during the last fifty years. Finding copies on missions and smuggling them back to Hydra. Hiding them in ingenious places around the bases he was stationed. 

Reading in the downtimes between being active and being frozen. Rediscovering them after clean wipe outs, finding safety in something new but strangely familiar, sometimes remembering random snippets without knowing were it came from. 

Hydra had seen it as an irrelevant glitch in the program, some of them even as a way to keep him docile. No one had really tried hard to keep them away from him since the missions never were compromised. Those books had probably in a small way saved Bucky's sanity.

"Grrooo..." came a sleepy dark sound from the tree-man. 

"He's been doing that for a while now," Bucky laughed, the scar on his lip stretching. "Rocket said that it's vocabulary was very limited, but if you know the nuances it's very expressive."

Rocket was with Tony in the engine room. After listening to Peter's description of Rocket's mechanical genius Steve didn't even want to know what the two of them were up to. Both of them were also weapons experts, which was even more scary. 

"Grrooooo..." came the deep voice again like a strong wind blowing through a hollow log. 

Small white flowers were sprouting from different places on the wooden body like a response to some kind of dream. It was the most alien thing Steve had ever seen. People with green and blue skin (both which he had seen before) and talking raccoons wasn't too far from comprehension. 

This was't a character in a book, this was a _real_ alien. 

Even so, both of them managed to turn around to look when the hissing sound of hydraulic doors to the conservatory opened. Steve made an almost subconscious move to free his hand but Bucky held it tighter. 

It was Gamora, her brown eyes habitually scanned the room for threats before landing on Steve and Bucky. She wasn't alone, the man accompanying had a muscular body fitting somewhere between Hulk and Thor. His skin was grey with red scarification and hairless. His face was hard, he didn't were a shirt. 

This must be the one called Drax. Up until now he had stayed aboard the other ship. Steve guessed that since Peter was over there with Bruce and Leo there had been a guard change. 

"Greetings," said the man. "I am Drax."

"Steve," said Steve. "This is Bucky."

Drax looked them over, clearly noticing their clutched hands but didn't comment. Then he looked past them at the man-tree, a small wrinkle of concern was visible in his expression. 

"We have come to ask permission to see Ronan," said Gamora in a fast and tense tone. "I did ask Maria but she is on pilot duty and also said it wasn't hers to give. Since your commander is busy, you are the second in command. It's very important that we get to see him..."

"Hold on..." Steve held up his free hand to slow her down. 

The next moment Drax had taken a hold of his hand. Steve blinked. The grip was quite tight. 

"Sorry," Gamora sighed and bent Drax' fingers open to let Steve go. "You have to avoid double meanings and similes when talking to him. Drax, he only told me to stop talking."

"They are holding on," said Drax. 

"It's because they are mates."

The big man seemed to consider this for a moment. 

"I apologise for interfering in your courtship," he turned to Bucky. "I have not challenged you for your mate, but if you want to defend his honour I will not back away."

It was said in such a matter-of-fact tone that even Bucky seemed dazed. 

"I-it's fine, his honour isn't threatened that easily. And he is fully capable of defending himself if that were the case."

"You are fortunate to have such a strong mate."

"Thank you," Bucky smiled and squeezed Steve's hand. 

Steve felt himself blush and cleared his throat to change the subject. 

"Actually, what I think what Hill meant was that you don't need our permission to see Ronan. He isn't a prisoner, and its up to him if he wants to see anyone."

"I understand," she nodded. "But it's still your ship. Also, after our history with Ronan I would think you would like to monitor the meeting."

Steve wasn't going to tell her about JARVIS and how he monitored everything, even stuff he wasn't supposed to monitor. He knew all about JARVIS showing the first time he and Bucky had sex to Tony and Jemma. The computer had most likely downloaded Milano's entire database by now. 

"Let's go then," Steve nodded. "From what I know he hasn't been that social lately."

They left the conservatory, the doors hissing as the exited. 

"Grooo..." said the tree-man, it's tone sounding like he was wishing them good luck and that they were going to need it. 

\--------------- 

Loki had volunteered to bring Ronan his food. As with other menial tasks aboard he didn't mind anymore. Being too prideful would only cause trouble later. Also by doing this he got out of the awkward situation he had created in the kitchen, also he wouldn't get roped in to help Darcy with the laundry. 

Even if he didn't care so much about pride anymore, he still tried to avoid the boring tasks. 

He had brought his own meal with him as well on the chance of Ronan wanting company. They were now eating in comfortable silence. The food was quite good, Barton's powers of taste were winning over Thor's inexperience. 

"So, do you want to talk about it?"

Loki wasn't sure if he could qualify as Ronan's confidant, but he was the closest one to it onboard. They were not friends as such, but they were not hostile to each other either. It was clear that something weighed on the Kree's mind, something other than the missing parts of it. 

Also, there was that something quite important that he wanted to know. 

"I don't know," Ronan poked around his half-finished plate. 

"I saw the way you were looking at him in the Med-bay."

He was careful not to imply by name of who he meant. 

"He surprised me. I should have been able to fight him off easily, but I just let him take me down."

Loki nodded in played understanding to hide his internal sigh of relief. He hadn't _really_ been worried. 

"It was like I remembered something when I saw him. I don't know what it was, like we had a connection..." He took a forkful of food and chewed it lacklustre. 

Again Loki contemplated the possibility of trying to counteract the causes of one Stone with the effects of another. It didn't seem right. Especially after going on about not being able to use the Mind Stone on Jane. 

It was possible that a Moment of Clarity would help, but Loki had never given one to a Kree before. Would Ronan react like a human or an Asgardian, or would it be something completely new? Loki felt he was dangerously close to one of those 'curiosity will lead you astray moments'. 

Then again, thanks to the staff he was now at leisure to use his magic for other things than to stay alive. In the long run it would be boring without some mischief and curiosity satisfaction. 

"There was something about him..." Ronan's eyes were on his own memories. "He was ascertain when he attacked me, but when the green being came forth he hid behind me."

"And you hid behind Anthony."

Anthony had told Loki the story several times already, and showed him the recording. The human laughed just as hard every time. It was beginning to get a bit tedious, but it did distract Anthony from his more darker thoughts. 

"Yes," he gave Loki a poignant look. "But Star-Lord hid behind me." 

Loki blinked even tough he had tried to be casual. Ronan had said 'Star-Lord'. It was Quill's idiotic hero-name, but from what Loki knew the name had never been mentioned in front of Ronan. He had to check over it with JARVIS later. 

Had something triggered a memory?

He needed to find out more, but someone was knocking on the door.


	27. Visits and invitations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so late. I was going to put it up sooner but I fell asleep, again.   
> I'm I the process of tying this part off. I have high hopes for part three.

Tony couldn't have been more happier if he had managed to convince Loki to do a striptease.

Well... That would have been totally awesome, even though realistically speaking Loki would have done an awful job of it, and used sarcastic comments all his way through. Then afterwards he would make Tony wash his clothes and fetch him a snack. It would still be worth it though. 

For the first ten minutes after seeing the Milano engines he had been speechless. I kid you not, Tony Stark speechless. Bruce had had to slap him hard on the arm. 

After that Tony had been all questions and fingers. At least he was in good company since Bruce, Leo, and Jemma were slightly salivating as well. Jane wasn't physically there, she was in her navigation lab, but she was still present through the cameras on Leo's small drones. Tony knew she was very exited as well. 

And who wouldn't be?

He had been introduced to the fifth member of the Guardians, Drax, when they first came aboard. But he had soon been asked to stay away from the big guy after sprouting off several metaphor-based jokes. Some people definitely have no sense of humour. 

Though he guessed they had a point after he carelessly had said 'hit me up' after being offered a beverage. He was quite glad he managed to duck that one, his nose wasn't up for any more breaks. 

Anyway, the engines were amazing. 

They were not as good as his, or rather the _potential_ of his, but they still had their advantages. Especially the power conversion in the batteries. Not even Bruce would argue against light speed if they had that installed. And if Tony could modify and hook that baby up to the particle accelerator... 

What couldn't it do to the particle accelerator? To the arc reactor?

Whoa, the thought actually made his pants tighter. Who needed to force people to take sponge baths when there was science afoot? 

One among the more unsurprising discoveries, but by no means the least important one, was that fuel was sometimes hard to come by in space. 

The Milano had capacity to use as many as fifteen different kinds of fuel, from methane gas to actual (Tony was sure he had had a minor heart failure when he heard it) cold fusion. Though, according to Peter, the most cost effective fuel was crystallised hydrogen extracted from asteroids. 

"It's an old trick," he said. "But since asteroids aren't always around, it went out of fashion when they discovered how to make it artificially. The natural stuff is still better though."

Tony had been absolutely fascinated.

"You are very open with your technology," he noted to Rocket who was in the process of picking apart a small motherboard to show it's construction to him and Bruce. "Back on Earth this kind of thing would be guarded with motion sensor flamethrowers."

"Sounds like a nice place," Rocket used his pointy claws to wedge off a small resistor. "This shit ain't mine, so I don't fucking care. If you want to see _my_ stuff you have to pay me for it. Anyway, if you ask me, Nova Corp went a bit cheep when they rebuilt the ship. Most of it is mediocre."

"Shhh!" hushed Peter. "Not in front of the baby!" He patted the wall soothingly. "He didn't mean it baby."

Rocket used his entire head to roll his eyes. Tony ignored it because he would have done exactly the same with Heidrun. He also ignored Bruce who gave him an amused look over Rocket's fury pointy ears.

The Guardians seemed to be all right with Bruce's problem with the green man, after getting over the initial chock that is. None of them had heard of a condition like it before, at least not without digesting a drug first. Though the fact that such drugs even existed seemed comforting to Bruce. 

The three small drones under Leo's control were hovering around the room. Leo communicated with Jane through a headset, she seemed mostly interested in the scanners. JARVIS had already copied the navigational database. 

Jemma was taking notes on her tablet. Tony still hadn't found out more about her date with Sam, even JARVIS had told him the footage was private. The two of them at least seemed to be getting along fine. He really hoped it wasn't just a case of 'stuck in space and we're the only single and straight ones left'. 

Tony felt a bit bad for Leo in this scenario. There was Kingsley too, but he seemed more content with his single status than Leo. Maybe they could find a nice pastel-coloured girl for him on a planet somewhere. Perhaps a purple one, or someone yellow, with three boobs. 

"You're pretty rich right?" Rocket lowered his voice and glanced over to Peter to see that he wasn't listening.

"So I've been told," Tony wasn't confessing to not really knowing the monetary value of his possessions, or skills, but he knew it was a lot. 

"Actually... I might have something for sale that you might be interested in."

"Might you?" Tony leaned down. 

"Yes, I might," the raccoon glanced around again, Bruce was obviously ignoring them. "I could show it to you, but only if you are willing to buy. When you see it I'm sure you want it. And I want a very good price for it."

It sounded quite intriguing. But Tony had learned buyers remorse the hard way, and wasn't jumping into anything without knowing at least the basics. 

"Two questions: 'is it illegal?' and 'is it dangerous?'"

"Yes," said Rocket. 

Bruce poignantly cleared his throat, he probably thought this a good time to come to Tony's rescue. Too late, my friend, too late. 

"I'll get back to you," Tony told Rocket who gave a small nodded. "Bruce?"

"You need to outside to make these changes to the accelerator," said Bruce narrowing his eyes through his glasses to look closer at the picked apart motherboard. "Perhaps the panel next to outlet four?"

"I'll have JARVIS fire up the suit," Tony looked around so that Drax person wasn't around to misinterpret that. "Do you want to come with me? The moderations to the suit we got from NASA are finally finished."

"I make it a rule to avoid tight clothing," Bruce smirked. "But thank you for the offer."

Tony had actually counted on him to decline. 

"Your loss. Next in line then. Leo? Would you like to take a spacewalk to keep me company?"

"M-me?" The young man was blinking so hard he almost crashed his drones. "Y-you don't really need my help out th-there... If you just want company, why don't you bring Loki?"

"Because my little elfling has some issues about floating in space. Also, you are skilled enough understand what I'm doing and be very impressed by it, thereby increasing my great levels of awesome."

Also, Leo needed some cheering up to hold him over until they found the three-boobied yellow chick. Ugh, bad mental image! 

And speaking of mental, mental note to check with Loki if 'elfling' is good nickname. 

Leo stammered a thanks and exchanged a smile with Jemma who looked just as excited. Then Jane said something to him in the headset. Leo fumbled a bit to get back control over his drones and got back to studying the ship, though with big smile on his face. 

"So..." Tony glanced fake-casually down at Rocket. "You said you have stuff of your own? What would it take to let me look at if?"

"Dude, I like you," snickered Rocket. "To start with, I want to see the suit. Your Barton said it was 'very cool'."

"He did did he?" Tony grinned. "That's interesting."

He was so going to tease Clint for that. Bruce gave him a look. 

"Though I totally agree with Drax that Terrans are weird to use temperatures to describe things. Quill does it all the time. We all thought he was messing with us until we met you."

Tony remembered Gamora being unsure of the expression before. So, there was another thing Earth was unique in. Sitcoms and slang. He was so proud...

"Told you," said Peter, crossing his arms and looking around. "Where is Drax anyway?"

"Gamora's showing him Heidrun," said Bruce without looking up from his small Geiger counter. "I think they were going to visit Groot."

"What?!" Peter breathed. "He's on your ship? The same ship as Ronan is on? Oh shit!"

He turned and ran out of the room before anyone could ask him what was going on. They could hear his boots clanking against the floor as he ran towards the exit. 

"What was that about?" frowned Tony. 

Rocket sighed as if preparing himself for hard work. 

"Probably about Ronan being responsible for Drax' family getting killed." He signed again and stood up to follow Peter. "Man, and we were having such a nice time as well..."

Tony exchanged a look with the others. 

"Shouldn't you have told us about that sooner?"

\-------- 

"Shouldn't you have told us about that sooner?" asked Steve. 

Bucky nodded in agreement, he wasn't happy with not knowing. Even though they hadn't had much to do lately, he and Steve were responsible for the security onboard. 

"Perhaps," shrugged Gamora. "But I knew it was going to be fine."

It was quite cramped in Ronan's small quarters with six people. It didn't help that all but for Gamora were tall and muscular, some more than others. Loki also had issues with personal space and almost took up just as much room as Drax even though being only half his size. 

Bucky had placed himself in the doorway so he wouldn't be as much in the way. It was one of the rare times he was glad he didn't have his arm because otherwise he wouldn't have fitted there either. 

About two minutes ago Ronan and Drax had been facing off, staring into each other's eyes. The former had looked angry and determined, the latter stoic but ready to defend himself if attacked. Gamora and Loki had been standing behind them like seconds, and Steve and Bucky had been between them like judges. 

It had been a very tense moment. 

With a very anticlimactic ending. Not that Bucky had wanted a fight or anything exiting like that. It wasn't like he was bored with the monotonous pace onboard that was only brightened by combat-training or sex. 

"It is not him," Drax had turned to Gamora. "I am satisfied with this punishment."

Ronan had given a slow nod of agreement. It was obvious that he didn't know what was going on but he had very much recognised the situation. He was smart enough not to argue. 

Everyone had seemed to relax after that. Steve had actually audibly exhaled.

"You still could have told us," said Bucky leaning against the doorframe. 

Gamora shrugged. Bucky suspected that she too missed a little excitement in her life. Not that Bucky was bored enough to recognise it in others or anything. 

"So now that's that settled..." Loki sighed. "Perhaps we could get back to our duties? And stop occupying as little a space as possible?" 

Bucky wondered, not for the first time, what Loki's actual duties onboard were. Except for being a midwife and keeping Tony on a leash. 

"Well," Steve made an indecisive gesture. "Buck's and my duty is looking after the guests, so perhaps we could go somewhere more spacious? Like the common room, or the gym?"

"What is so common about this room?" asked Drax. 

"Eh..." Steve hesitated.

"It's not at all common," huffed Loki under his breath and crossed his arms. "I decorated it myself."

Bucky had to agree that the common room was tasteful, though the misunderstanding was still amusing. 

"And what is a _gym_?" continued Drax. "I have not heard this word before."

"It's the training room, isn't it?" asked Gamora. 

"Good," Drax nodded and looked Steve over. "Take me to this _gym_ and we will train. I would like to try my strength against yours. Will you fight me?"

"Eh..." said Steve again. 

Steve wasn't the one to back down from a challenge or an invitation to spar, but an unknown opponent of Drax's character in a confined room wasn't always a good idea. If anything Steve was a tactician. But would turning Drax down be seen an insult or even a sign of weakness?

"Stop!" came a shout from outside the room down the corridor. "Stop! Don't fight him!"

Next moment Bucky had been pushed past and Peter was standing in front of Ronan facing Darx. He was holding out his arms in protection. He was breathing hard. 

"You can't go around fighting on other people's ships! Well, not on nice people's ships anyway. And anyway it's not him. You are mistaking identity. Because that person is dead. And this is not him even if they look alike and have the same name. But he's alive. Not him. But him here. The other person..."

Peter stopped for a deep breath and accidentally leaned back Ronan. He froze and tilted his head back as far as he could, meeting Ronan's eyes who was curiously looking down at him. Peter made a guttural sound. 

"Quill," said Drax. "You have strange order of words coming out of your mouth. I have been told to tell you when this happens."

"He does have a way with words, does't he Elfling?" asked Tony from next to Bucky. 

"Indeed," said Loki in a strained voice. "But you don't, so if you ever call me that again your suit won't be the only thing that's red. Now shut the fuck up before I..." He wobbled slightly. 

"Are you all right there, babe?"

Loki blinked, then he fainted.   
\--------

"'Claustrophobia'?" repeated Tony in an unbelieving tone. "Are you sure?"

Loki had just woken up. He was propped up on several pillows one of the med-bay beds. 

Ronan had helped carry him there and then left to watch Drax spar with Steve. Kingsley had tucked Loki in and left as well. Apparently it promised to be quite a show. 

Tony had JARVIS tape it for him. 

"Yes," huffed Loki, but then gave him a soft smile. "If you could let go of my hand."

"Sorry," Tony smiled and pulled his own hand back. "You never told me you had claustrophobia."

They were talking in low voices since Jane was sleeping under heavy sedation on the next bed. Thor had been with her when they came in but left with Ronan. He had said that Jane had requested the sedatives herself so she could get a good long rest and focus on her work better. 

"Do we have any mortar onboard?" 

Apparently Jane wasn't asleep anymore, her voice was slurred though.

"Mortar?"

"Stark, I'm pregnant with two giant alien babies that are using my spine and inner organs as kicking practice. My feet are killing me, I'm slowly being poisoned by my own body, and for some reason I have a craving for mortar. Don't judge me!" 

How many drugs had Kingsley put her on? Loki shook his head, warning Tony not to provoke her. 

"I'm sorry, Jane. I don't think we have any mortar onboard."

"Story of my life," she sighed and then she seemed to doze off again. 

Yeah, she was pretty drugged up.

"Anthony," Loki said with a patient sigh. "I feel uncomfortable being touched, what do you think happens when you have too many people inside a small room?"

Tony hesitated. He knew it was more to it than that. Ever since they got together he had observed Loki carefully, trying to find the cracks in the armour, knowing that these cracks would need the most of his support. 

"I'm fine now. Go back to your work." Loki looked passed him and gave a pointed nod. "You have people waiting."

Tony turned around. Rocket and Leo were standing in the doorway. They were holding what seemed like several engine components in their hands. Rocket had a very interesting looking bundle covered in brown cloth strapped to his back as well. 

"Sorry," Leo shifted slightly. "Bruce said y-you would need these."

"Thanks. Aren't you going to watch the fight?"

"I don't like fights if I'm not in 'em," Rocket shrugged. "I want to check out your suit."

"I... em..." Leo blushed and looked at his feet. 

Tony smiled, the boy was easy to see through. He had been offered a spacewalk but was too shy and polite to ask about it. Tony turned back to Loki. 

"Are you going to be okay on your own?"

"Who do you think you are taking to?" Loki glared back at him. 

"You, babe. That's why I'm asking."

Loki blinked, looked away for a moment, and then met Tony's eyes again. He had a small embarrassed smile on his lips. 

"I got her for company," Loki gestured towards Jane. 

"You look pale."

"I'm tired, I just need some sleep."

"I'll ask Dracy to come over," Tony couldn't help himself and leaned in for a quick kiss, he was happy to feel Loki respond to it. "Get some rest."

"Thank you," Loki was still smiling. 

Tony nodded, gave him a last look and left the med-bay. Leo and Rocket followed. 

"JARVIS, ask Darcy if she can play nurse for a while, send the bots to meet us in the engine room, prep Mark sixty-nine and the modified NASA suit, tell Bruce to check the radiation levels, and give me a schematic of outlet four."

"Yes, sir."

"Your computer is sounding better," marked Rocket.

"I let him assimilate one of your universal translators, it seemed to work better for him than Loki's spells."

"A-assimilate?" asked Leo. 

"Are you making a Borg reference or a Cyberman one?" 

"Well, I am British," smirked the young man. 

Tony smirked back as they entered the elevator. Jemma, Bruce, and Darcy were already inside, but Darcy stepped out past them when the doors opened. She continued towards the med-bay. 

"How's the training going?" Tony asked Bruce. 

"Pretty even," Bruce shrugged. "But Steve probably could do better if he didn't have to concentrate on defence and damage control."

"He's a good boy." Tony looked at Jemma who looked quite excited. "Are you all right?"

"I'm going to attach biometric patches to Leo to look how his body reacts first time in space." She held up a small cardboard box. "I made them myself. Science!" 

"Science," agreed Tony.

Leo looked a bit pale. 

The elevator doors opened and they stepped outside. They were in the prep room next to the hatch. Mark sixty-nine was there, it's blue eyes lighting up as it's scanners recognised Tony. 

"I'm going to the monitoring station," said Bruce. "Be good."

Before leaving he glanced at Rocket's bundle and then sternly to Tony. The meaning was clear. Tony pretended he hadn't seen it. 

He took off his trousers and shirt and reached for the under-suit. Rocket paused halfway on his climb it the sixty-nine. The blue light from the arc reactor glimmered in his dark beady eyes. 

"I need that."

"No, you can't have it," smiled Tony. "I won't die without it anymore, but is still a part of me and I prefer it to stay that way."

"I'm very good at reusing mechanic body parts, you can ask anyone. And I got something really good to trade for it."

"Sorry, Fuzzball," Tony stepped into the first leg of the under-suit. "I can't give you my heart, it belongs to another. Leo, don't just stand there. Suit up. Don't forget your thermosuit, it's cold out there. Also, Jemma probably need som skin for her patches."

"Can I put one on you too?" Jemma asked, holding up something looking like a envelope-sized piece of grey skin with woven silver strands. 

"Slap in on me," sighed Tony. 

She placed it on his lower back, it felt sticky. 

"How...?" Leo had taken off his shirt but was looking at the space suit. 

"Doctor Fitz," said JARVIS politely. "If you give me your attention I will show you a step by step instruction video."

"Oh, okay."

Tony smirked as the first step of the video instructed Leo to continue to get undressed. Jemma walked over with her patches. 

Meanwhile Rocket had reached the shoulder of the Iron Man suit. He had taken a seat on the shoulder and wrapped his tail around the suit's neck. 

"So," Tony adjusted the undersuit around his crotch area, nothing worse than a spacewalk with your junk pinching. "What you got there?"

"Something for sale," the raccoon patted his bundle. "I just haven't found the right buyer yet."

It was hard to tell with the cloth around it, but Tony guessed it was about the size of a toaster. 

"Can I see it?"

"Maybe we can go somewhere more private?"

"No such place down here. Can it wait until I get back?"

"Sure," Rocket shrugged. 

"Good. Now move over or you'll be my new necklace."

Rocket gracefully jumped away at the exact moment the suit opened up to admit Tony inside.


	28. Running out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm m so sorry for these horrible delays. I am ashamed of myself. I still blame Christmas and New Years for screwing so badly with my schedule.
> 
> This is the second to last chapter in this part. Hopefully the last chapter will be up in a few days. I will then start posting the third part as soon as I have a three chapter buffert.

"I'm telling you I'm fine!"

The shout woke Loki up from his light slumber. He looked to the right. Jane was on her back and snoring. Darcy was sitting on a chair between their beds, a StarkPad with a half written document was on her lap, she was looking passed Loki out towards the office. 

Loki turned to look as well, his movements felt a bit sluggish. He had told Anthony that he fainted because the room was too crowded, but that was only half of it. The Mind Stone had been talking to him. 

Not 'talking' like in words, it was more like small reminders that it was still around, awake, and existing. Jane gave a big snore and coughed slightly, she slept on. Loki wished he could put the Stone to sleep. 

Or, maybe they could... It was... He listened to Jane's breathing. A difficult idea... But not an impossible one. The Tesseract had been dormant for centuries on Earth before Rogers' redheaded enemy found it. Loki folded the thought away for later for when he could concentrate better. 

The voice that woke him had been Rogers'. The former soldier was in the next door office having his bloody knuckles looked over by Kingsley. Bucky was standing next to him, doing his best not to look concerned. 

The Guardian called Drax was there as well. Loki hadn't taken that a good look at him before. He didn't recognise the man's species, which told him it was probably a kind that seldom left its homeworld. Which in turn explained his simplemindedness earlier. 

There was a bandage wrapped around Drax's left arm. The captain must have gotten in some good hits. 

"Who do you think won?" asked Darcy from behind him. 

"Most likely it was a draw, since it only was training match," Loki breathed and sat up more straight so he could lean against the pillows. "If it were for real and the Captain had his shield the outcome probably would have been different. How long have I been asleep?" 

"Just forty minutes or so," she said and turned back to her text, that judging by her expression was coming to a high point. 

"What are you writing?" Loki knew he was going to regret it before he even asked. 

"Lord of the Ring fanfiction." 

"Oh," Loki gave her a look. 

He had read some of her stories in the so called newsletter. She had a talent for words but her subject could need some adjustment. She obviously had not met any elves or dwarfs personally, if she had she wouldn't be so hasty in throwing them so intimately together. 

At least she had moved away from turning them into vampires. Thankful for small graces, since Loki would probably in his lifetime read through the entire Heidrun digital library and the only things left would be Darcy's fanfiction. It made him sarcastically question if he really wanted to improve his health. 

Though, it gave him the idea that if Anthony ever called him 'elfling', Loki would call him 'dwarfling'. It would be fun to see his reaction. Tony had a thing about his hight. 

"It's just a hobby to pass the time." She wrote a few lines and smirked. "Anyway, it was actually Bucky who suggested it. If you have favourite couple I could try to do them as well. Gives me something to do between chores."

Loki ignored it. 

"Where is Anthony?"

"Outside," she pointed to a monitor on the wall that had been installed for entertainment during long bed rests. "JARVIS has a couple of cameras on him. Leo's out there too, he seems to be having fun. I don't know what Tony did to the NASA suit but it looks like Buzz Lightyear had a baby with a starved version of that robot from Big Hero 6."

She suddenly looked very thoughtful at the possibility. 

Loki ignored that too. 

The monitor showed Iron Man welding something inside an open hatch. He had a cord attached his waist that in its turn was attached to what looked like a human shaped balloon staring limply out towards the stars. The ballon was occasionally slowly raising its arm to point at something far far away. 

Loki shivered. He didn't have fond memories of floating is space. 

"How are you feeling?" asked Kingsley coming into the room, expertly unwrapping slightly bloodstained gauze off his hands. "Your tests are fine, no change."

The others were leaving the Med-bay behind him, talking in friendly voices. Rogers had bandage around his knuckles. 

"I'm not feeling better or worse than usual," Loki leaned back with a sigh. "Which tells a lot of my life."

"We're really running out off steam here, aren't we?"

That could be said of many things. 

"I agree. I don't seem to make any progress. The Stone is tricking my mind to believe my body is well. But since I'm aware of that trickery, it's a bit of a stalemate. Maybe I should go back into the Freeze Machine." 

Loki rubbed his face. How long could he keep up this charade? He could use the Stone to make himself forget the problem, but he had a sneaking suspicion that if he did he would go search for the truth. 

"Brother!" Thor's booming voice made all of them jump. "You missed a glorious battle."

He entered the room, shoulders broad, head held high, smiling. Ronan was at his back. The blue man seemed to opposite of Thor, troubled and conflicted. He sat down on one of the empty beds and stared on the image of Iron Man and Balloon Man on the screen. 

"Training session," corrected Loki glaring at Thor. "And keep your voice down, your bride is sleeping."

Thor looked a bit chastised as he walked over to Jane's bed to look her over. He took her hand, even though hers was a bit swollen his was still about twice as big. 

"Don't worry," Kingsley was studying his bare hand, the bandage hanging from his wrist. "She's not going to wake up for hours. Even the babies are sleeping."

"Is that safe?" asked Darcy. 

"I perfected the sedative myself. You seem to forget that before you made me join your team I was often forced to work alone under crude conditions. I had to develop all types anesthetisers to be able to do my work. Speaking of anesthetisers..." He opened and closed his hand. "I think the potion is having some effect on me. My joints doesn't hurt as much any more. and look."

Kingsley held out his hand to Loki. His skin was only scars, as usual, but thanks to his good care, continuous moisturising, a little bit of Loki's magic, they were all healthy scars. Loki shook his head, he didn't see it. 

"My nails are growing back," Kingsley looked at his fingertips again, the bandages over his face covered most of his expression but he seemed fascinated. "They fell off after the accident and never came back. Is it the potion?"

"Not impossible," Loki looked closer. "Your scars, as you know, are too old to improve by such a small amount, but I'm sure it heals what it can. How does it feel?"

"It hurts like hell actually."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I got a shot for that."

Loki shivered. The thought of needles in his fingers reminded him of things better forgotten. 

Speaking of such things, he looked to Ronan. The man looked miserable. Loki thought again on the possibility of a Moment of Clarity, and it's consequences. Good or bad, it would most likely trigger something to move the Kree forward. As it was now was no way to live. 

It was best to do it here in the presence of witnesses. 

"Ronan?" Loki moved to sit on the edge of the bed, letting his legs hang over the side of it. "Come over here, I want to give you something. A spell."

"Loki?" Thor looked between them. "Is this wise?"

"It's just the spell, nothing else. It will make him feel better."

"What kind of spell?" Ronan asked suspiciously. "What will it do?"

"For humans it's either an emotional or intellectual experience, for Asgardians it's more soulful. I don't know the effect for Kree, but I'm confident that it will help you."

Ronan didn't move. 

"If it helps," said Dracy. "I've gotten it twice. The first one gave me better understanding of myself and the second one helped me open up to Bruce. I think you should do it,"

"It will help me?" Ronan asked. 

"Yes," Loki smiled. "I promise."

It was big words for something so uncertain, but Loki had faith... or at least hope. 

After one more moment of hesitation Ronan got to his feet and walked over to Loki's bed. 

Loki got to his feet, the floor was cold. He didn't have any trousers, he was going to punish Anthony for that later. He took a breath to gather his magic. 

"Since the last one I gave was intellectual, Anthony coming up with the particle accelerator, this one should be emotional. If you react like a human, that is."

He placed his hands on Ronan's temples. The blue skin was warm, so much warmer than his own blue skin when it was visible. Loki spoke the spell. 

Ronan didn't seem to react. There wasn't even the smallest dilation in his purple eyes. At first Loki thought that maybe Kree were immune to the spell, but then Ronan gave a slow blink and stood up straight. 

"I need to think about this," Ronan sounded thoughtful. 

The next moment he had left the room, if they hadn't seen him go they would had thought he just vanished. Loki looked down on his hands. 

"Did it work?" asked Thor.

"How did it work?" asked Kingsley. 

"JARVIS," said Darcy. "Have Clint check in on him."

"Yes, miss Lewis," answered JARVIS. 

Thor, Kingsley, and Loki stared at her. 

"What?" she huffed. "I am responsible for the moral onboard. If he's troubled someone should keep an eye on him. Preferably one who has a good aim with tranquilliser darts." 

"I'm going to go down and wait for Anthony," Loki sighed. "Where are my trousers?"

\------------ 

Rocket was sitting on the wheelbase of a robot called 'Dummy'. He had met a few intelligent and self-aware artificial life forms before, but this one (and its 'siblings') was something else. It actually had a good sense of humour. 

He would have loved to pick it apart to see what made it tick. Sadly, the thought of doing that to the robot seemed strangely intimate. 

Dummy was going over the already clean engine room floor with a dust rag while beeping to some kind of a beat that could be identified as a melody. It was quite calming. He wished Groot was there to hear it. 

He really hoped the big log would be finished growing soon, he missed sharing things with the woody idiot. 

Banner and Simmons was busy monitoring the two men outside through several screens and holograms. They were mostly focused on a hologram showing what looked like medical data. Probably transmissions from Simmons' patches. 

The other two robots looked like they were on a break. What counted as their heads were touching. Rocket guessed it was their way of relying messages without sending them through the main computer. Robots with secrets, never good. 

He shifted his tail to a more comfortable position and took a better hold of the bundle on his lap. He didn't feel too comfortable having it so close, but this was his chance to finally get rid of it. And to make a good profit. 

Ever since he had become a Guardian his bank account had suffered for his conscience, but now things were looking up. Stark was clearly loaded, which was good for Rocket's bank account. Stark was also righteous and intelligent, which was good for Rocket's conscience. Both of his sides were happy. 

He knew he shouldn't have stolen the thing in the first place, let alone kept it a secret from his friends. Even from Groot. But it wouldn't have been safe back on Knowhere, that place crawled with criminals.

Also, the thing was worth a lot of cash. 

But mostly because it wouldn't have been safe. Mostly. 

It wasn't safe with Rocket either. 

Stark was hesitating about buying. He was clearly someone who had made bad mistakes in the past and was still suffering for it. The strange light in his chest was probably more than enough proof of that. 

"Fuck the fucking fuck," Rocket sighed. 

The robot Dummy mimicked the rhythm of the words with his beeps and then went back to its song. Rocket couldn't help but to laugh. 

_"Bruce?"_ Starks voice came from one of the speakers. 

"Yeah?" Banner didn't look away what he was doing. 

_"Test the radiation relays in section four."_

"They are good."

_"Power conversation?"_

"Holding."  
 _  
"Can we do light speed yet?"_

Banner shook his head and chuckled. 

"Still needs testing, but the preliminary stats look promising."

_"I bet you say that to all the girls. I'm finished out here. Leo and I are just going to enjoy the view for a while."_

"Go ahead," Banner glanced over at Rocket. "Take your time."

Rocket hugged his merchandise a bit closer. He didn't want anybody's mitts on it that didn't pay for it, but what could little furry him put up against a potential giant green rage monster? Also, he kind of liked Banner and wanted to keep on his good side for more than the obvious reasons. 

"What do you got there?" Banner asked. 

"None of your business," Rocket involuntary twitched his nose. 

"I'm making it my business," Banner walked over, Dummy stopped moving around. "What is it you want to sell?"

 _Don't make him angry,_ thought Rocket in a slight beginning of panic.

"Do you think I'm trying to trick him?"

"No, not deliberately. But you have the same look on your face that my dog gets when he's nervous, and that makes me worried."

Rocket licked his nose. He didn't like the comparison to the animal, it reminded him too much of what he could have been if the geneticists had left him alone. He looked behind Banner to Simmons who wasn't paying attention to them, or at least she was pretending not to be. 

With a sigh he carefully removed the cloth from the dark metal cylinder. It was cold to the touch, colder than expected. 

"What is it?" 

"A power source." 

Rocket felt a bit uncomfortable saying as much. He really should be talking with the guy with the funds, not the guy who obviously had higher morals than any of them. 

"Like a battery?" 

Banner took up something that looked like a communication device from his pocket at held it up to the cylinder. It made a few beeping sounds that Dummy wasn't late in imitating. 

"No detectable radiation..." Banner looked at his device. 

Rocket noticed a new tone in the Terran's voice. A tone filled with opportunity. 

"Exactly like a battery, but an infinite one, and more powerful," Rocket felt himself become a little too excited in his sales pitch but he really couldn't help it because this thing was actually awesome. "I tried to hook the fucker up to the Milano and we like jumped almost a lightyear without even touching the controls! And then all the fuses blew and it took us a two cycles to get back on course."

"Didn't your friends wonder what happened?"

"I said I was playing around with the new guidance system. Quill gave me something he calls a 'time out'."

He noticed Banner's half-smirk. Obviously 'time out' was another Terran concept Quill hadn't made up. 

"Those things are boring as shit, I'll tell you, but it gave me time to look closer at this sucker. I discovered three things. It's real powerful, it could be dangerous in the wrong hands, and I could make a lot of cash if I sold it to the right people."

Banner looked thoughtful, darting his creepy green between his device, the cylinder, and the monitor with Stark on it. Rocket licked his nose again, the fucking idiotic tell was the reason he always lost at high stake games. 

Here was the source of Stark's hesitation. 

Stark may have the resources, but his morals were more of a match to Rocket's own. He had observed the Terrans these few cycles. Banner was the real conscience of the group. Perhaps Rogers played that roll as well, though his was a more ridged one. Rogers wouldn't accept stolen goods. Banner on the other hand would probably like the honesty. 

"I took it," Rocket breathed. "The place it was kept was badly damaged in an explosion. Looters were in the way. Ravagers, pirates, thieves, what ever you call them."

"So you stole it instead?"

"I saved it," Rocket stretched his neck. "I'm supposed to be a Guardian of the Galaxy. Not letting scum be too powerful is a part of that."

"So instead you are selling it to the highest bidder?" asked Simmons who had come up behind Banner. 

"The highest _honest_ bidder, lady," he glared at her. "And not even that. I'm not looking for a bidder, I'm looking for a buyer."

"Who else have you offered it to?"

"Stark's the first that met my liking."

"Do you mind if I have JARVIS scan it?" Banner sighed, a hint of held back curiosity in his voice. "Tony would do the same, after he bought it. I'm partial to doing it before."

"Fine," Rocket faked disappointment but snickered on the inside, he knew a interested party when he saw one. "But be careful if you open it up, it has a liquid core."

\------------ 

Loki paused. 

If he were a fanatic of the one of those Star-whatever movies, the one kind that Jane liked best, he would have said it was a 'disturbance in the force'. 

The Mindstone was calling out its wordless words to him. 

Loki decided yet again not to listen and continued on his way towards the elevators. He wasn't sure if Anthony would have any use for him in the engine room, except for perhaps create test scenarios for the machines by magic. 

Never the less he felt an urge to see Anthony, if only to make sure that the void of space hadn't taken him from him. It was a strange notion but not an issue unfounded one. 

Inside the elevator stood Ronan and Barton. Barton was holding a StarkPad, depicting what seemed to be a list of all the mundane chores aboard. 

"Ronan has decided he wants to stay with us for a while," said Clint in response to Loki's questioning glance. "He'll be taking over most of Jane's shifts and will assist Nat with some of hers."

"Welcome aboard," said Loki. "Though I thought you might would have wanted to go with the Milano when they depart."

"It's not like I won't see hi- _them_ again," said the Kree. "I must start a new life, what better place to do so than somewhere I won't be judged on the memory of who I used to be? It will help _them_ to see me in a new light."

"Right," Barton rolled his eyes. "You're not fooling anyone, you know. You're were staring more at Peter than on Cap being pounded on by that alien wrestlemania-monster-dude. Your discipline is starting to slip."

Ronan shifted. Loki smirked. 

"Com'n," Clint sighed as the elevator doors opened. "I'll show you how to fill in Coulson's inventory forms for the storage, then we'll start on the supper..."

Ronan made an affirmative sound and made to follow Barton, but Loki put a hand on his arm. 

"How did the spell work? What did you feel when you got it?"

"I felt calm," the Kree actually smiled. "Like my thoughts finally stopped bothering me and I was ready to make a rational decision."

That's was a new one, thought Loki as he let Ronan go with a nod and the elevator doors closed. Rationality, go figure. 

Then Loki's head exploded with a sudden most terrible pain. He screamed, then lost consciousness. 

The cold darkness was a bliss.


	29. Closing time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of this part.   
> The third and last part will start when I've written three chapters, so about two weeks. 
> 
> This chapter is a bit silly and has a quick wrap-up, but it's only because I want to get a move on to the good stuff.

Tony didn't know if he was upset or just very exasperated. When would Loki learn to take it easy? What was wrong with just staying in bed, rest in a sexy pose, and _not go around fainting all the time?!_

He had so been looking forward to telling him about the engines upgrade. About how, finally, they could get a move on and actually do some serious exploring. 

The upgrades were not perfect, sadly. Heidrun needed to land on a planet with at least a somewhat breathable atmosphere to make possible the final step into arc reactor. But at least they were awesome, Tony was awesome too, and Loki was unconscious, again. 

"Any guess why this happened?" he asked Kingsley. 

They had placed Loki in the Freeze Machine. 

"He gave Ronan a Moment of Clarity," Kingsley half-shrugged while checking over Loki's vitals. "But he seemed fine."

"This is Loki we're talking about, he can seem fine and be dying on the inside."

"I checked the inside," Kingsley showed him a StarkPad. "At least before the spell, after he fainted the first time."

Tony had to agree that the old results looked okay. He gave the pad back to the doctor. Kingsley looked it over, and updated the file with some comments on the new numbers. 

"Though he did imply that something like this could happen."

"Not to me," Tony touched the glass separating him from Loki's blue face. "Seriously, babe..."

It hurt seeing Loki like this. How ever many times it happened it never got better. He sighed. There was nothing they could do but wait. 

They walked back into Kingsley's office. Rocket was there, picking apart a heart monitor. Kingsley gave Tony a look telling him that he was irritated but still confident that Tony would better put the machine together again or so help him. It was amazing what that man could convey with his face all wrapped up in gauze like that. 

"I'll talk to him," said Tony. 

Kingsley huffed and left for the observation room. Jane was still sleeping, curled up on her side best as she could with the belly in the way. Thor and Darcy were playing cards on a small metal side table. 

"So," Tony turned to Rocket who was actually _sniffing_ one of the wires he had pulled loose from the very important piece of life supporting machinery. "Bruce said I should pay you what ever you wanted for the thing."

Rocket grinned up at him. 

"Though," Tony continued. "Since neither my esteemed colleague, nor my loyal AI, will tell me what the thing is, I'm not sure if I can agree to your asking price."

"I haven't said a price yet," Rocket pulled out another small wire and inspected it. "And it's a power source."

"Well, you saw the thing I was just working on? The one attached to the outside haul? The particle accelerator? I can make my own power with that. So why do I need your fenced goods?"

"Because you want it?" 

Damn that fluffy knowing face. Tony glanced back towards Loki and then over to the observation room. There didn't seem to be any change in either room. 

"Yeah," he combed his hand through his hair. "Bruce says that I want it too. What's your price?"

"One million units." 

Rocket sounded a tiny bit too brazen, as if he was asking a little bit more than originally planned for. Tony liked the strange creature's guts. 

"How much is that?" Tony shrugged. "I'm not that good at space-money. Give me something to compare it to. Like how many units is a... I don't know... a loaf of bread? Or a screwdriver, how much is a screwdriver? Like that one you are poking apart my stuff with."

Rocket looked at the tool in his paw, weighing it with thoughtfully.

"This is a good screwdriver."

"I know, it's mine. See my name on the logo on the side there?" 

"Ten units."

More than expected, which meant that the asking price for the thing was less than expected. Or on the other hand, screwdrivers could be really expensive in space. Another thing he could make a new fortune on. 

"Fine," Tony smirked as Rocket's eyes widened. "But only if you share it with the rest of your team."

"Deal!" Rocket enthusiastically pointed the screwdriver at him. 

"Okay, but you gave to show me how to transfer it. I've never done it before."

\-------

Clint smiled as he watched Ronan watching at the washing machine. It was quite surreal seeing a large blue adult man stare at a spin cycle with the fashion of a small kitten. 

He sighed and wondered what his life had come to. If someone had told him back when he was a kid at the circus that he was going to be married to a former Russian spy, live with outer space, and teach aliens to do housework, he would have shot them in the ass with an arrow. 

\--------- 

Steve was in the gym trying to follow along with Sam and Natasha doing yoga. 

It had started off as a dare from Sam but had ended up being a real challenge. Apparently being a super-soldier didn't automatically teach you how to correctly rest in a warrior pose. He was a master of combat and acrobatics, darn it, why was it so hard just standing still with stretched legs and his arms out?

One of his comforts was that somehow Peter and Drax had been roped in as well. Probably because Sam and Nat made it look easy. Nat was amazing how she worked the movements around her pouting belly. 

To everyone's surprise Drax was pretty good at yoga. Peter fell down more often than Steve. 

Bucky had blamed his still missing arm as an excuse not to join in. Instead he was sitting by the wall taking photographs of Steve on his phone and grinning. The humiliation of coordination loss and manly pride was worth it for that smile. 

\-----------

Bruce pushed aside the fake wall in the back of his laboratory. He had installed it himself without Tony's knowledge. 

Behind the wall was of course the real wall, but also a small space large enough to contain a thick lead and steel mini-fridge sized safe. Inside the safe were his his small samples of plutonium and radium, and his father's old radiation contaminated notebooks. 

If Rocket's power score was what Bruce thought it was it wouldn't be affected by the radiation inside the safe. He really hoped it would though, just to prove him wrong. A hard feeling in the pit of his gut to told him he wasn't. 

It wasn't an ideal hiding place and Tony would ask about it of course, but for now it had to do. Bruce was going to say it was leaking and contaminated. At least until he had made some more tests. He knew that JARVIS would keep his virtual mouth shut about it. 

\----------

JARVIS was watching over his crew. He felt pride. They had all been working hard to get to this point and now they were here. The next cycle they were going to attempt light speed. 

He felt a tingle of anticipation through his fibre optics. 

He watched Thor talk to Jane who had just woken up. She laughed as Thor valiantly described the 'joust' between Captain Rogers and Drax, blowing it up to almost epic proportions. 

He watched Hill and Gamora on the Bridge. They were talking, smiling, and leaning in for their first kiss. 

He watched Coulson gasp and laugh as he was gently patted on the head by Groot. The tree creature had stepped out of the flowerbed and was looking for more fertiliser pellets. 

He actually learnt something new, which was quite exciting, as Rocket showed Mr Stark how to transfer units between accounts. Then he watched the raccoon having slightly worrying breathing difficulties when discovering the collected amount of units on Mr Stark's bank accounts. Mr Stark seemed both amused and pleased by the reaction. 

JARVIS was everywhere on the ship at the same time. He followed the conversation between Darcy and Kingsley over Loki's health; he helped Simmons organise her biometric test data; he transcribed as Fitz enthusiastically described his spacewalk to his diary; and he oversaw Dummy playing a game of fetch with Cow in the loading bay. 

Steve and Peter were holding on to each other's shoulders while attempting standing on one leg with their other foot on the inner thigh. Both were laughing. Wilson and Romanoff were smirking while doing the same move but flawless. Drax seemed to have gotten the hang of it, even though the expression on his face wasn't sure about the point. JARVIS uploaded the images that Barnes took with his camera in a file, then he took some pictures of his own for good measure. 

Butterfingers and You were on call in the engine room. They were told to by Mr Stark to 'hold down the fort', which more or less meant 'don't touch anything except in a crisis'. The two of them were whispering on their private network. JARVIS had hacked it once, but when he discovered they were only trading ever-repeating loops filled with gossip and occasional updates he let it be. Also, he thought, there was a odd chance that they might come up with something good eventually. 

Loki was no longer unconscious, but sleeping. JARVIS directed the cold air from the Freeze Machine to the ship's cooling system. His own processors relaxed with the drop in temperature. The cold Loki produced was different than the one coming from outside, it felt more personal, caring, somehow. 

Banner was yet again looking over the results of the scan they had done earlier. He was worried. JARVIS shared the sentiment. 

Barton and Ronan were folding sheets, and even if the folds weren't straight it wasn't as big a disaster as it could be. Captain Rogers would re-fold them later anyway. 

JARVIS was indeed omnipresent. He knew all the secrets and all the hiding places. He had the trust of the crew and the ear of his master. 

He could crush them all. 

But he wouldn't, because he loved them more than anything in the universe. 

\-------------- 

Tony waived as the airlock closed behind the Guradians of the Galaxy as they entered their own ship. The Milano had to un-dock for the Heidrun to move, and also their guests had things to do and places to be. 

The farewell committee consisted of himself, Clint, Nat, Hill, Steve, and Bucky. Everyone else had said goodbye at the small party a few hours ago. Well, everyone except Loki who was still sleeping, the lazy sod. Tony missed him. 

He glanced to Hill standing beside him. 

"For a moment there I though you were going with them. Or are you doing like Ronan and hoping to prove yourself?"

"I have nothing to prove," Hill gave him a look. "There is a difference because Peter doesn't know Ronan is interested, and Gamora knows I am. Also, Stark, I'm not like you. I don't push myself on people at the first sign of consent."

"You're not like I _used_ to be," Tony reminded her. "I'm now a perfectly monogamous ex-playboy with a gorgeous asexual boyfriend to emotionally support. I've risen above all that. I'm a newer better person."

Clint coughed. Nat snickered. Steve rolled his eyes. Bucky glared. 

"Anyway..." Hill sighed. "We can talk over the comms. And we're soon going to meet up again. Thor invited them to celebrate the birth of his children. That's three months from now."

"Months doesn't exist any more," said Tony bitterly. "It's _cycles_ now. There's about eighty cycles, give or take, until the babies are born."

"Pumpkin is definitely going to love Groot," said Clint and patted Nat'a belly, completely ignoring Tony's irritation over the reordering of time. 

"You only like him because he you climb him like a tree."

"Tony," sighed Steve. 

"What?" Tony blinked innocently, his mood slightly improved. 

"When are we leaving?" asked Hill, steering them back on track like a good pilot. 

Tony shrugged. 

"We can leave at anytime. The particle accelerator is prepped, the engines are running up, and the new energy converger is working."

He spared them all the extra technical talk on how the three machines connected and created energy. None of them would understand the genius behind it anyway. Which it totally was, genius. 

"Maybe..." Steve stepped forward "...we need to tie down some stuff first. We don't want to have loose things crashing about while in light speed."

"Actually," Tony turned and motioned them to follow as he walked towards the elevator. "If we want to reach the planet Quill have us coordinates to..."

"The one with the breathable atmosphere?" asked Steve. "Where we can land the Heidrun?"

"Yeah. JARVIS, the Bridge, please." 

"Yes, sir."

The doors closed and the elevator began to rise. 

"If we can land Heidrun there I can finally make the last adjustments without the conditions of space, and health and safely on board, working against me. I'll be able to make and install an arc reactor big enough to take care of our energy problems for ever. Or at least for a very long time."

"How far away is it?" 

"Let's go to Navigation and I'll show you."

The doors opened on the Bridge. Sam and Coulson were on duty. Tony gave them a nod as he continued to the next room. The other five were following him close behind. 

In the Navigation room he brought up the star maps on the hologram displayer. Jemma was already there looking through Jane's computer. She got up and joined them as they entered. 

"Have they left?" she asked. "I'm going to miss them."

Tony gave her a look. She was in league with Bruce. Though there wasn't much time to ponder on conspiracy theories because a digital observatory depicting the entire galaxy was suddenly filling the room. 

"Whoa, Jane really done a good job on these," he said. "Awesome, awesome science lady. She already made all the calculations. We only need to put in the coordinates.... So..." Tony typed in the numbers. "So... Yeah..."

"Four lightyears in three months?" Nat looked closer, then rolled her eyes at Tony's huff. "Sorry, I mean 'eighty cycles'. Is that possible?"

"Yes," Tony nodded. "But we will burn out all our resources. If- I mean, _when_ we get there, we can't leave until I finish and install the arc reactor. Or if Bruce lets me..."

He paused. Bruce had hidden away Rocket's power source, which was quite unfair of him since it was Tony who had payed a million units for it. Bruce had also refused to tell Tony anything about it before Loki woke up. 

That should be a clue to what ever it was it was dangerous. Still, it was Tony's property. Well, it was Tony's bought stolen goods, which was almost the same thing. 

He glanced to Jemma who ignored him. Devious woman. 

"If Bruce lets you what?" asked Steve. 

"Nothing. It's just an emergency plan." He sighed. "Let's go get Natasha some solid ground under her swollen feet. Go tie everything down, the start might be a bit bumpy."

"My feet are perfectly fine thank you," Nat rolled her eyes. 

"I can account to that," said Clint. "Since it's who have to rub them every night."

"I don't want to hear about your sexy kinks," Tony continued studying the map. "But if you want to write them down and send them to me in a e-mail you are more than welcome. Preferably with pictures."

"Tony!" Steve barked. 

"Yes, dear?"

Steve just shook his head. Bucky gave him an encouraging pat on the back. 

"I have to ask..." Jemma leaned conspiratorially in closer to Tony. "How many warps will we be doing?"

Tony laughed. Her previous deviousness was forgiven. He made the calculation in his head. It took seven seconds. 

"About warp three point six."

"Awesome," she nodded. 

"Nerds," said Clint. 

"What's that in parsec?" asked Nat. 

 

\---------- 

The End, for now.

Please hold for the third and last part: 'What we are working with now.'


End file.
